Energy and water use at a WSUD subdivision in Brisbane, Australia

Abstract

This paper reports on the water and energy balances of a small ecosensitive subdivision in Brisbane, Australia. The 22-lot development is designed around individual and communal rainwater tanks, on-site greywater reuse, off-peak sewer pump outs, and energy and water efficient house design and appliances. Results to date are limited by time and occupied house constraints, but they clearly identified the importance of rainwater and greywater in substituting for potable water (up to 190 L/hh/year). However, this water self sufficiency came at the cost of specific energy use well in excess of that from centralised water and sewerage systems. Suggestions are made on how to offset these energy losses, and include greenhouse gas efficient hot water system and grid connected photovoltaics (PVs). Future monitoring will include the social attitudes of residents towards sustainable urban practices and composition of the various water streams (e.g. rain, greywater, sewage and storm flow)

Keywords:

• Water sensitive urban design
• metabolism
• water
• energy
• Payne Road

Additional information

Notes on contributors

E A Gardner

Ted Gardner is a Principal Scientist with the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Water, where he leads the Water Cycle Sciences Group. For about the last 10 years, Ted has focussed on urban water reuse and more recently, alternatives to the urban water cycle. Over the last five years, he has been leader of the Healthy Home project, which is an energy/water/waste efficient sustainable home on the Gold Coast incorporating rainwater and greywater treatment and reuse. Ted’s current project is a desk-top audit of non-sewered subdivision in southeast Queensland, which follows on from his interest and publications in sustainable onsite disposal practices. He is also leading the Payne Road project - a multi-organisational study into quantifying the water, energy and nutrient balances of an ecosensitive sub division in Brisbane, which incorporates rainwater and greywater into its urban fabric.

Ted has published extensively in the area of soil water balance modelling, sustainable effluent irrigation and urban water budgets. He has co-supervised three PhD students (the current candidate is examining the hydrogeochemistry of septic absorption techniques) and two Masters students. He is also a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Queensland. In 2005 Ted was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Land and Food Sciences and Agriculture and Horticulture. As part of the 2005 Australia Day Awards, Ted was awarded a Public Service Medal for his work on water recycling and urban water supply.

G E Millar

Grant Millar has worked for the Department of Natural Resources and Water since 1999 on several urban water science projects in SEQ and at many cotton growing areas of southwest Queensland. His task has been to devise and establish instrumentation for field application so that data was efficiently recorded and documented for subsequent analysis and reporting. The projects he has worked on include: WC Fields effluent reuse, Pimpama-Coomera water quality sampling, Healthy Home and Payne Road urban water and energy use monitoring, and Cotton Deep Drainage investigations. He is currently employed in the Department’s Water Metering Initiative.

C Christiansen

Col Christiansen has been a technical officer with the Department of Natural Resources and Water for the past 35 years. He has worked at several centres within Queensland, firstly as an engineering draftsman then in a technical advisory capacity for education and extension products. Col is presently employed as a scientific officer on various urban water projects in southeast Queensland and based at the Department’s Natural Resource Science Unit at Indooroopilly in Brisbane.

A M Vieritz

Alison Vieritz has worked as an environmental modeller for the last 12 years with the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines (now Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water). She is model manager of the effluent irrigation design model MEDLI and has experience in modelling of water and nutrient balances of both rural and urban systems using a pragmatic, top-down approach.

H Chapman

Heather Chapman is program leader for the Sustainable Water Sources program in the CRC Water Quality and Treatment and adjunct associate professor at Griffith University. Heather has experience in water quality and management, water recycling, application of water quality guidelines and the development of techniques for assessment of risk from chemicals in water. Heather is presently managing a research program on sustainable urban water.