eWater Urban Developer water-sensitive design software tool

eWater CRC has released Urban Developer, a tool to support Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM). Initially targeted at lot-to-cluster scale applications, it will ultimately allow urban water managers to compare options for integrated water management ranging in scale from the allotment to the suburb. It is now available in a free beta version.

The software tool incorporates all three urban water cycle services - potable, waste and stormwater - within a single framework. It can simulate demand and supply interactions at sub-daily time scales and can deal with catchment rainfall-runoff responses at a range of scales.

Urban Developer will let users examine, design and assess how a system based on water-sensitive design principles will operate. The modelling framework is equally applicable to brown and greenfield sites, and can also be used to explore issues such as urban renewal by enabling exploration of innovative service delivery strategies.

It also lets users see the relationship between inputs, outputs and amounts in store. It readily highlights the potential interactions of water supplies from reservoirs, stormwater, rainwater tanks and wastewater.

The program allows the user to play with the factors affecting individual blocks and streets, and will ultimately extend to the suburb scale.

Key features include: conceptual and preliminary design tool that replaces current manual processes; clearly represent all three urban water cycle services and the interaction inherent between them - potable, wastewater and stormwater; deal with probabilistic demand and end-use simulation; analyse models using either continuous rainfall and climate data over long periods or using design storm events; integrate systems at a range of spatial scales; explore the effects of rainwater harvesting; and powerful capacity for upscaling and downscaling.

Urban Developer joins the music urban stormwater software in the eWater Toolkit.

While music addresses the water quality aspects of urban stormwater management, Urban Developer takes an integrated management approach to stormwater and provides support for the assessment of a broader range of options. The new tool can handle the required feedback loops and will ultimately evaluate water quantity and quality consideration in a single framework.