Using the Hydro-Brake® to Control and Attenuate Urban Stormwater Runoff, Improve WSUD Treatment Processes and Reduce Downstream Flooding Risk

Water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) is a land planning and engineering design approach which integrates the urban water cycle, including stormwater, groundwater and wastewater management and water supply, into urban design to minimise the environmental degradation and improve aesthetic and recreational appeal (Kuhn, 2010). Stormwater quality improvement devices (SQIDs) usually rely on sufficient residence times and low flow rates in order to filter efficiently. The increased urbanisation of Australia has added vast areas of impervious terrain across all built-up areas. This along with typical Australian high intensity, short duration storms is resulting in large amounts of runoff over a short period. These large rainfall events are causing inefficiencies within SQIDs, with pollutants gaining access to stream channels and causing problems with environmental flows. Important environmental characteristics can be maintained by constraining the volume, rate and timing of the filtration points (Hamsteed, 2007).