New tools to evaluate water-sensitive infill developments

The CRC for
Water Sensitive Cities has released new tools to facilitate liveability and
amenity in infill developments, particularly usable green space.

Noting that infill development is promoted nationwide as a way of accommodating growing urban populations, the Cooperative Research Centre says current infill patterns “increase building footprint and thus imperviousness of the redeveloped lot, most often at the expense of usable green space.

“Without
significant intervention, ‘business as usual’ redevelopment will have a
considerable negative influence on urban hydrology, resource efficiency, urban
heat, liveability and amenity.”

The Infill Performance Evaluation Framework will help assess the water-sensitive outcomes from infill development, while the Site-scale Urban Water Mass Balance Assessment Tool is “one of several tools practitioners can use to assess water sensitivity”.

The latter is undergoing beta testing.

The CRC says the framework can be used by practitioners to:

• compare
  different planned designs;
• generate
  metrics that feed into broader economic evaluations or building approval
  processes;
• identify
  targets and objectives for infill development; and
• predict
  the impact of new developments.

Click here to find out more and to download the framework.