Rows of fruit trees flourishing in a desert environment is not something you see in outback Australia. But a team of innovative AECOM urban designers and scientists are working with a remote Aboriginal community to help make it happen.

In the small town of Warburton in Western Australia, close to the Gibson Desert, the idea of growing orange trees irrigated with treated wastewater is part of a ground-breaking project to plan a sustainable future for its 600 residents. Dr. Peter Breen, AECOM's head of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) in Australia, says it is a new way to approach water-related challenges where people live.

"As scientists and engineers, we can do this through all sorts of treatment devices, but unless it is well integrated into urban and landscape design, the community won't accept it. It needs to be an integrated process, and to do that we need to collaborate," says Dr. Breen.

"We're good at WSUD because we adopted the philosophy of collaboration early. We've had a lot longer to practice that integration. It probably started from a federally funded research initiative into collaborative research centers in early 1990s. That was a catalyst."

While Australia has been embracing water sensitive urban design for some time, it's a new concept in places like China. There, a wetlands project in Deqing gave AECOM the opportunity to develop a creative multi-use approach for residents and industry.

"The local government's intention was to relocate people who relied on the waterways and canals to farm, fish and grow freshwater pearls. But instead, we suggested a zoned wetland redevelopment with a conservation area, an area to treat water flowing to the conservation area and productive wetlands with rice paddies and fish ponds to support a reduced local community," says Dr. Breen.

"Our plan meant residents remained connected to the land they have lived on for many years and would provide a workforce for managing and operating the wetland park, conservation areas and ongoing conservation work. This approach has just been approved by the local government.

"To get a good outcome you have to collaborate with other engineers, landscape architects, planners and urban designers. No one discipline has a mortgage on water sensitive urban design. We collaborate in a way that benefits everybody and the outcome is better than any of us can do singly. Within AECOM globally there is a critical mass of specialists."

Other parts of the world where AECOM's efforts have resulted in good outcomes for water sensitive urban design include the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates, AECOM has worked in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to find solutions to flash flooding.

"When it rains, it can be quite intense because the urban infrastructure can't cope," says Dr. Breen. "I've been in Dubai when it's come to a total standstill with traffic jams, flooded cars and flooded properties. In these urban areas the pipes only get rain every now and again; they're often full of sand, and there are no overland flow paths to take the rain away when the underground system is full or blocked." AECOM used the landscape to solve the problem.

"By creating overland flow paths, the landscape became a minor drainage system. So places like parks would be depressed, and piped drainage would discharge into those areas," says Dr. Breen.

The future direction of water sensitive urban design is taking shape in an Australian urban renewal project in central Melbourne. The 25-hectare site is currently in the concept stage and could be virtually self-sufficient in water. Water is also a key part of the economics of the project, using harvesting and recycling practices and then selling it on.

"If you can take yourself off the water network you can invest funds in recycling infrastructure that creates a business for that development by supplying it with water. Developers can't afford to ignore this type of approach.

"What developments like this are also starting to do is draw together water conservation, protection of aquatic ecosystems from urban development and exploration of how local energy generation can heat and cool buildings and disinfect water supplies.

"We will see more of these innovative projects as Australian cities redevelop. This is the way of the future."

Catherine Scott