Events

Are you passionate about the future of stormwater management in New South Wales? Join us for an engaging and informative webinar hosted by Stormwater NSW, where leading researchers will delve into the latest advancements and future prospects in stormwater research.

Event Highlights

• Discover the broad impacts of stormwater and potential mitigation measures.
• Explore innovative ways to better utilize stormwater as a valuable resource.
• Learn about improvements in modeling, governance, planning, designs, approvals, and more.
• Understand the direct and indirect costs of stormwater management and its benefits for cost-benefit analysis.
• Engage in discussions about future ideas and opportunities.

Special Features

• Expert Presenters: Hear from renowned researchers at Western Sydney University, Water Sensitive Cities Australia, Macquarie University, and the University of NSW.
• Interactive Q&A: Pose your burning questions to the experts during the live Q&A session.
• Networking Opportunities: Discuss potential research collaborations, identify knowledge gaps, and connect with researchers for future engagements.
• Contact Sharing: Request contact details to engage with presenters in more detail after the event.

Presenter Lineup

• Western Sydney University
• Water Sensitive Cities Australia
• Macquarie University
• University of NSW

Call for Presentations

If you have ongoing stormwater research projects that align with the themes mentioned above and would like to present at our event, we welcome you to reach out to Craig Bush at craig.bush@sydneywater.com.au.

Don’t miss this opportunity to stay at the forefront of stormwater research in NSW.

REGISTER NOW: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iKW1arMvROiyaeWoUin79A#/registration

The Operations and Maintenance Manual Workshop will be held at the Canada Bay Club in Five Dock on Monday 16 April 2024 in conjunction with the franc.sydney Conference. This full day workshop covers all aspects of operations and maintenance for all types of stormwater treatment measures.

The workshop is aimed at Maintenance Managers and Cleaning Contractors, as well as Council staff involved in the sizing, siting and approval of stormwater treatment measures. The workshop focuses on the guidelines, produced by Stormwater NSW, which have become the industry standard and reference document for the maintenance of stormwater assets across the country.

The cost of the full-day workshop includes morning tea and lunch. A copy of the Guidelines will be provided electronically for all attendees.

Stormwater NSW and Partner Member: $595 Non Member: $795

Presenter: Murray Powell, Optimal Stormwater

Future-focused, Resilient, Adaptive and Networked Communities

Join Stormwater NSW on a tour of prestigious projects that have been recognised for excellence in relation to stormwater design, asset management and landscape architecture. The projects will vary in scale and complexity, and we guarantee everyone will learn something that will benefit them and their organisation. This site tour will be held on Friday, 19 of April, the day after the franc.sydney Conference concludes.

The ‘Showcase of Excellence’ site tour will feature 4 parks within City of Sydney. Each of the parks have received an award by Stormwater NSW or Landscape architects over the last 7 years. The parks and their awards include:

1) Drying Green, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects NSW – Award of Excellence – Parks and Open Space – 2023

2) Johnston Creek naturalisation, Stormwater NSW Award in excellence for Asset Management in 2021

3) Victoria Park, Stormwater NSW Award in excellence in Integrated stormwater design in 2019

4) Sydney Park, Stormwater NSW Award in excellence in Integrated stormwater design in 2016 

The cost of the full day site tour includes bus transfer, morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea. Stormwater NSW and Partner Member: $195 Non Member: $295

REGISTER NOW: https://gems.eventsair.com/francsydney-2024-conference/pre-post-rego

Stormwater NSW hosted a free webinar to compare and contrast how different Australian states fund stormwater management. Hearing from leading stormwater practitioners about their state’s funding models as well as supporting governance arrangements.

The seminar concluded of lessons and opportunities for stormwater funding in NSW.

To view the webinar, click here

Stormwater NSW – Webinar Summary of State Vs State – Origins of Stormwater Funding

Webinar Presenters –

Alexa McAuley, Director, Civille

Alexa has more than 20 years of experience in green and blue infrastructure policy, planning and design. Alexa has substantial experience consulting to local government and has helped many local government clients shift water-sensitive urban design from a niche practice to a mainstream activity, she also has an excellent understanding of the challenges facing local government in funding stormwater management.

Dr Jeremy Cheesman Director, Marsden Jacob Associates

Jeremy is an experienced environmental and resource economist specialising in urban and rural water infrastructure funding and financing. Jeremy works with governments and water businesses across Australia advising on stormwater infrastructure financing and funding mechanisms as well as supporting governance reforms.  Jeremy was a member of the Victorian Stormwater Ministerial Advisory Committee in 2018, led the development of the Victorian approach to urban stormwater offsets and helped regulated water businesses across many Australian states to gain funding for discretionary stormwater investments through customer-facing price submissions.

Cath Thrupp, CEO & Founder of Carbon Planet

Cath is an aquatic ecologist and catchment manager with 25+ years of experience delivering major water and natural resource projects within the private, public & non-profit sectors in Australia and internationally. Cath’s career has encompassed managing environmental aspects of dam operations, wetland and fish assessments, environmental flow monitoring, landscape restoration programs and urban water planning and policy.  She is now focussing on innovative business models for natural resource management. Cath is also President of Stormwater Australia.

Matthew Edgerton, Economist, Frontier Economics

Matthew Edgerton is a consulting economist with more than 20 years’ experience in regulatory economics and public policy. Matt has advised government departments and utilities on a range of issues related to the water sector including regulation, governance, investment evaluation, pricing and cost recovery. This has included, for example, advice to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment on catchment-wide stormwater and waterways governance and cost recovery arrangements in Western Sydney. Matt has also held a senior role in IPART which included overseeing IPART’s regulation of Sydney Water’s prices and charges for its stormwater services and reviewing high-value local council infrastructure contributions plans including proposed charges to recover stormwater infrastructure costs.

To View the Presenters Presentations, click below:

Financing and Funding IWM_WSAA_stormwaterNSW – Jeremy Cheesman

Stormwater management funding slides Alexa June 2024

Stormwater NSW – Financing our Future – Cath Thrupp

Stormwater funding – Matthew Edgerton

To view the webinar, click here.

Despite WSUD devices being in place for several decades now, reliable information on installation and operational costs remains elusive.

This webinar will help address this issue by reviewing the current state of knowledge of WSUD lifecycle costs, showing the link to best-practice asset management and concluding on how we can improve our data collection, cost estimation and accounting for WSUD.

In this webinar you’ll hear from a number of leading stormwater practitioners involved in lifecycle costing and management of WSUD.

Member Rate: Free Attendance

Non Member Rate: $50.00

Presentation Overviews…

Chris Manning – Water Sensitive Cities specialist, Water Sensitive Cities

Presentation: Understanding the Lifecycle Costs of Water Sensitive Solutions

Water Sensitive Cities Australia is collaborating with partners to improve understanding and estimation of lifecycle costs, ensuring decentralized systems are considered early and properly resourced for optimal benefits. Chris’ presentation will also provide a project update and outline potential next steps, subject to funding.

Sally Boer – Founding Director, E2Designlan

Presentation: Strategic Asset Management for Improved Financial Planning of Green Infrastructure – MidCoast Council and Sydney Olympic Park Case Studies

Sally’s presentation will share strategic asset management approaches developed for MidCoast Council and Sydney Olympic Park Authority to support improved financial planning and management of WSUD and ecological assets. These projects developed costed and prioritised maintenance and rectification schedules to address present-day issues, as well as long-term asset management plans and budget forecasting that lays the foundation for cost-effective management.

Rob Catchlove – Director, Wave Consulting Australia and Wave Maintenance

Presentation Overview

Modelling and budgeting for WSUD costs and maintenance has been a problem for councils and practitioners for decades. This presentation will walk through empirical evidence of the actual costs to maintenance, and built and rectify, WSUD assets.

This is based on an actual maintenance contractor, Wave Maintenance, and modelling from Wave Consulting Australia, with over 5 years of on ground experience and real costs for the cost of raingardens, swales and tree pits. It will explain why costs can become CHEAPER over time, with good maintenance, asset managers can extend the life of an asset, and increase the benefits of the assets.

It is critical to understand the variables that influence estimating maintenance costs (the largest cost in the estimation of life cycle costs), and that any discussion on costs and life cycle needs to first be asking ‘compared to the cost of not having this infrastructure in place’.

Stormwater managers have struggled for decades with funding for stormwater that is ad-hoc, poorly directed or simply inadequate to meet community needs for clean, healthy and resilient waterways.

This in-person seminar is a part of a series of events by Stormwater NSW that not only seeks to develop a common understanding of stormwater funding issues but to elicit industry views on possible solutions.

The outputs from this seminar will be used to help in advocating to the NSW Government for changes to stormwater funding models commencing with a renewed call to increase the stormwater management service charge.

Seminar participants will hear from a wide range of speakers from across and outside of the stormwater industry. Participants will also be invited to share their experience and have their say on ways forward to improve funding.

Who Should Attend the November Seminar?

The seminar is designed for those affected by funding decisions or who have the power to change, or wish to advocate for change on how stormwater management is funded.

Don’t Miss Seminar Speakers Kate Beatty, Matt Edgerton, Dan O’Halloran, Morgan Spruce and Bruce Thom

For More Information: ttps://conta.cc/3ZbnoQ4