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Components of the Total Water Balance of an Urban Catchment

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Abstract

A daily model was used to quantify the components of the total urban water balance of the Curtin catchment, Canberra, Australia. For this catchment, the mean annual rainfall was found to be three times greater than imported potable water, and the sum of the output from the separate stormwater and wastewater systems exceeded the input of imported potable water by some 50%. Seasonal and annual variations in climate exert a very strong influence over the relative magnitude of the water balance components; this needs to be accounted for when assessing the potential for utilizing stormwater and wastewater within an urban catchment.

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Acknowledgments

This project was undertaken as part of the CRC for Catchment Hydrology’s Urban Hydrology Program. The authors would like to acknowledge EcoWise Environmental and ACT Electricity & Water who provided much of the data required for the modelling of the Curtin catchment located in Woden Valley of Canberra. The constructive comments of the paper’s reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology, PO Box 56, Highett, Victoria 3190, Australia

    V. Grace Mitchell

  2. Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia

    Thomas A. McMahon

  3. Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology, Department of Civil Engineering, PO Box 60, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

    Russell G. Mein

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  1. V. Grace Mitchell
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Correspondence to V. Grace Mitchell.

Appendix: Catchment Land Use and Surface Coverage

Appendix: Catchment Land Use and Surface Coverage

A detailed breakdown of land use, number of occupied dwellings, and mean residential block area, on a suburb-by-suburb basis, was available from the Planning and Land Management Section of the ACT Department of Urban Services in the form of data bases and cadastral maps. These provided much of the information on land use and surface coverage over the period of interest; however, information on road, roof, and paved areas was not readily accessible and was determined from maps of the area. A sample of block areas was measured from enlargements of block and section maps to determine the mean block size for each suburb. The areas of roof and pavement within the same blocks were measured directly from 1:2500-scale orthophoto maps, which were taken during the period 1977 to 1990, with the majority dated 1980–1983. The sample size ranged from 28 to 81 blocks, depending on the total number of blocks and the regularity of block size in the suburb. The exception is the medium-density housing area of Phillip, which is highly uniform in block, roof, and paved area.

The mean roof and paved areas could not be determined for the suburb of Isaacs, as the orthophoto map of the area predated the construction of the suburb. Hence, it was assumed that the mean roof and paved areas in Isaacs was equivalent to those found in the adjacent suburb of Mawson, being of similar block size and household occupancy. The results of these measurements, along with other information collected, are given in Table 6 In comparison to these results, Willing & Partners Pty Ltd (R. Knee, personal communication) stated that the average household roof area was 226 m2 in Curtin, 240 m2 in Farrer, 236 m2 in Hughes, and 223 m2 in Pearce, and there was a mean of 20 m2 of average household paved area throughout the Curtin catchment. The roof areas compare reasonably well to those found through measurement, although the estimation of paved area differs markedly, perhaps reflecting changes since the 1983 figures were collected.

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Mitchell, V., McMahon, T. & Mein, R. Components of the Total Water Balance of an Urban Catchment . Environmental Management 32, 735–746 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-003-2062-2

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