Blacktown City Council leading the industry in bioretention system research

On 19 October Council hosted a knowledge sharing session to present to the industry the bioretention system validation and optimising monitoring project that is currently underway. This is a collaborative project involving Blacktown Council, the NSW Government through the Accelerated Infrastructure grant, Ocean Protect and ALS Global.

This monitoring project is possibly the largest of its kind in Australia and will provide an unprecedented level of rigour to the monitoring of various aspects of a bioretention system over a 5-year period including the water quality/quantity performance of:

  • 6 different filter media types,
  • 3 different inlet types,
  • grass vs vegetated systems.

The monitoring project will also monitor other components including:

  • performance (water quality and waste removal) of 2 gross pollution traps,
  • effectiveness of saturation zones,
  • vegetation condition and maintenance requirements,
  • benefits of these systems to combat urban heat.

The event received significant interest attracting over 60 people including local governments, consultancies and universities. We will continue to work collaboratively with the industry and share the results from this project with a view to improving performance of these systems in a cost-effective manner.

If you are interested in collaborating with us on this project either in-kind or financial please reach out to kristy.good@blacktown.nsw.gov.au