Wsud

 As part of a holistic approach to land planning and engineering, water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) incorporates the urban water cycle into the design process to reduce environmental degradation and enhance aesthetic and recreational appeal. When it comes to sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), a phrase used in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Australia, the term WSUD is a lot like low-impact development (LID) or sustainable drainage systems (SuDS).

Large amounts of stormwater runoff are generated as a result of traditional urban and industrial expansion, which converts once-permeable vegetated surfaces into a network of impervious linked surfaces that must be managed. Stormwater runoff is a burden and a nuisance in Australia, as it is in other developed nations, like the United States and the United Kingdom. There is a considerable emphasis on the construction of stormwater management systems that quickly transmit stormwater runoff to streams with little or no consideration for ecosystem preservation. [2] Urban stream syndrome is the product of this management strategy.  Streams holding increased concentrations of pollutants, nutrients, and suspended particles are created when heavy rains wash contaminants and sediments from impermeable surfaces into the water. In addition to altering the channel's form and stability, increased peak flow speeds up sedimentation, which in turn reduces the ecosystem's biodiversity.

In the 1960s, a growing awareness of urban stream syndrome led to some progress in Australia in the area of comprehensive stormwater management.

During the 1990s, the federal government and scientists collaborated through the Cooperative Research Centre initiative to raise awareness of the issue.

It is becoming increasingly clear that cities need an integrated approach to potable, waste, and stormwater management in order to cope with population growth, urban densification, and climate change, which are all putting increasing strain on water infrastructure that is already aging and expensive. With its reliance on surface water resources and one of the most severe droughts (from 2000–2010) since European colonization, Australia is particularly sensitive to climate change, highlighting the fact that major metropolitan areas face rising water shortages. Stormwater runoff is no longer viewed as a burden and nuisance, but rather as a valuable supply of water, and this has led to new stormwater management strategies.

In the 1990s, Australian states began issuing WSUD recommendations, drawing on the federal government's fundamental research. Western Australia released guidelines in 1994. It was in 1999 that the Australian states of Victoria and Queensland produced recommendations on the best practices for environmental management of urban stormwater, created in conjunction with New South Wales. An agreement was made in June 2004 between the federal government of Australia and each of the states and territories to improve water usage efficiency in the country. This comprehensive national strategy to enhance water management in Australia includes WSUD, which is a best practice approach to water management in Australia. WSUD is a component to this strategy.

Conventional urban stormwater management is not the same as this.

WSUD views urban stormwater runoff as a resource rather than a problem. The way natural resources and water infrastructure are handled in town and city planning and design has undergone a paradigm change as a result of this. The concepts of WSUD view all waterways as a resource having different effects on biodiversity, water, land, and the use of waterways by the community for recreational and aesthetic reasons.