Water sensitive urban design considers the whole water cycle, including management of rainwater from roofs, paths and roads with the broader environment in mind.

We visit two residential developments in the Wollongong area and look at the water-sensitive urban design elements that have been or will be handed over to council to manage.

But how do councils and developers best work together to provide it effectively?

What defines great practice, what have we done well in the past, and how can we learn from our mistakes?

While some progress has been made, councils and their communities are at the start of the journey - there’s much more that needs to be done. 

In this episode we hear from:

• Andrew Heaven - Development Engineering Manager from Wollongong City Council
• Emma Struys - WSUD Project Manager for ISJO

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Water management is a shared responsibility between utilities and councils, and both groups are looking at working more collaboratively: within and across organisations.

But the scale of their operations is very different.

How do councils work with water utilities such as Sydney Water? And how do both types of organisations engage their communities in water sensitive design solutions?

This is an evolving space as these organisations come to terms with the vital nature of reform in this area, and it’s iterative - they’re learning from each other, and from others as they go.

In this episode we’ll be setting the scene, unfolding the challenges - and looking to solutions.

In this episode we hear from:

• Emma James - Water Sensitive Planner with Sydney Water
• Emma Struys - WSUD Project Manager for ISJO

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The sponge city is a way of visualising how water should be absorbed and travel through an urban environment.

Instead of rushing the water away, a sponge city absorbs and keeps it in the landscape. But how do we plan for sponge cities when the city or town has already evolved to rush water away? It starts with benchmarking: assessing how water sensitive a community already is and asks what else councils might do to progress.

We discuss how ISJO started and constructed its benchmarking process and share insights from other councils that have successfully engaged their communities in water sensitive practices. 

In this episode we hear from:

• Jan Orton - Senior Consultant from Mosaic Insights working with ISJO on benchmarking
• Natalia McGregor - Manager of the Environment team with the City of Shellharbour
• Emma Struys - WSUD Project Manager for ISJO 

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The township of Walcha, on the south-eastern edge of the Northern Tablelands, has more than 600km of gravel roads it relies on to service the community and its economic driving force - agriculture.

Those roads carry everything, from trucks bringing feed and fertiliser to trucks taking livestock to market, kids going to school, farmers going to town - they are socially and economically critical. But this year Walcha experienced a drought unprecedented in living memory and there was no water for road repair. At a time of social stress and economic anxiety, what could they do to keep the roads functional?

In this episode we hear from:

• Councillor Eric Noakes, who is the Mayor of Walcha and a local farmer
• Walcha Council Roads Manager Luke Andrews and manager of Water and Waste Water, Tess Dawson.

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A city in the heart of cattle and sheep country, with a strong industry and residential mix at its heart, Tamworth in NSW is coming good after the longest drought on record. The drought was so severe, it shocked the city and its residents and furthered the community’s determination to be drought ready for the future.

We learn how councils in rural cities and towns prepare for longer and more severe periods of drought.

In this episode we hear from:

• Tracey Carr, Sustainability Coordinator, Tamworth Regional Council
• Councillor Col Murray, Mayor, Tamworth Regional Council.

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We step out of town, along the dusty gravel roads, to check out how some members of the farming community are working to keep water longer on the land.

The process is designed to lift carrying capacity and profit, boost diversity and improve landscape hydrology. This internationally recognised approach is being applied to properties around Australia.

So, what does this type of farming mean in practice, what can it do for river catchments, and how does it contribute to the work of local governments in the Namoi?

In this episode, we hear from holistic farmer and educator Craig Carter. Craig and his wife, Nicky Chirlian, own Tallawang, 445 hectares of mixed Grazing for Profit and Natural Sequence Farming.

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