Message from the stepping back President,
Jamie Tainton
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It has been just over a year since we kicked off 'The Outlet' and it has developed such a wonderfully loyal readership and following. We are so grateful to get the opportunity to enter your workplaces, (and your homes during lockdown), and your minds through your inboxes. It has provided us with an opportunity to highlight our achievements as a committee and industry, in a format that’s accessible and engaging. We hope our newsletter informs, inspires, and connects you.
Now to keep you all in the loop, I have decided to hang up my Presidents hat at the Annual General Meeting later this month. The past two years has been an amazing opportunity to engage with the industry on a level I’ve never been able to before. Being President has given me the chance to lead a great bunch of people through some really uncertain times. Over that period, we had to step back and really consider what we wanted to provide to our membership and our industry. We felt one of our key responsibilities was to continue to provide a sense of connection and growth for the membership.
Our newsletter was one initiative, however our webinars have also been a successful mechanism for increasing our industry capacity and knowledge base remotely. Through our webinars, we have been able to reach a wider audience on more occasions without the impact of location. Through our strong relationship with the industry we have been able to source sponsorship to provide this service free to anyone willing to watch. To me, this is an invaluable resource and I’m proud to say that our free webinars are here to stay!
I look forward to handing over my presidency to the next incumbent, who I know will further grow and develop our association into the future. In my new role as Immediate Past President, I’ll still be involved to ensure we don’t dip in our responsibilities and engagement through the handover. I know we’ll all be in good hands, and I can’t wait to see what unfolds next for Stormwater Victoria.
After that, if you’re looking for me, I might be beside a river camping somewhere with my new hat (if I can get further than 5km that is!). Thank you for all your support and faith in me as your President over the past two years, it has been grand!
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Leadership Tip
The SBI ( Situation-Behavior-Impact) model for giving feedback is proven to reduce the anxiety of delivering feedback and also reduce the defensiveness of the recipient.
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Have you ever thought of joining the Stormwater Victoria Committee?
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Here is what one of our Stormwater Victoria (SV) committee members have to say...
“I am very thankful for my time in the SV committee and would recommend joining and undertaking time with the Stormwater Victoria committee, to share what you can, and ensure that our industry continually strives to achieve change for improvement.”
Colin McLeod (Maroondah City Council)
How to join?
- Nomination Opening: Thursday, 5 August (by email to members of Stormwater Victoria; Subject: Notice of the 2021 Stormwater Victoria Annual General Meeting and Nomination for the 2021 - 2022 SV Committee)
- Nomination Closure: Tuesday, 17 August at 5pm
- Vote (only if the number of nominations is greater than the number of available committee position): between Thursday, 19 and Monday, 30 August 2021.
- Annual General Meeting: Tuesday, 31 August – new committee formed
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Melbourne Water price review 2021
The decision is the culmination of over two years of extensive engagement with Melbourne Water’s customers and community. It enables the delivery of the outcomes most valued by their customers, including safe and reliable water and sewerage services, healthy waterways, protection of the environment and to keep prices as low as possible.
The wholesale water and sewerage services provided by Melbourne Water make up about 60 per cent of household water bills in the metropolitan area. Overall the price decision translates into an average bill reduction of around $20 in 2021/22 for a typical residential household. The Waterways and Drainage Charge will increase by about $1 to $105 and this charge will support important investment in waterways and drainage services, including wetland maintenance, flood protection, and stormwater harvesting schemes.
Implementation of Integrated Water Management will expand to address the ongoing challenges of climate change, urbanisation and recent past population growth. Almost $100 million in new capital investment is planned for stormwater harvesting in the region, including the priority areas of Sunbury and upper Merri Creek.
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Melbourne Urban Stormwater Institutional Arrangements Review
DELWP, MAV and MW are undertaking a review of the Melbourne Urban Stormwater Institutional Arrangement (MUSIA), seeking to formalise the stormwater roles and responsibilities throughout Melbourne.
At Stormwater Victoria, we welcome the clarity that this process will bring. Three options are tabled for discussion:
- Option 1 - Delineation by catchment, improved 60-ha: would allocate responsibilities based on a formalised and more clearly defined version of the existing convention.
- Option 2 - Delineation by asset size and class: would categorise and allocate responsibilities for assets based on size (e.g. pipe diameter) or class (e.g. retarding basins and wetlands).
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Option 3 - Delineation based on outcomes: would allocate responsibilities based on which organisation is best placed to manage the outcomes delivered by an asset or service.
We encourage our membership and the wider industry of stormwater professionals to take a look at the discussion paper.
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The Urban stormwater management guidance is now live
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The Urban stormwater management guidance is now live! The EPA Urban stormwater management guidance contributes to the state of knowledge that helps minimise risks from urban stormwater across Victoria and supports the preventative focus of the general environmental duty under the Environment Protection Act 2017.
The guidance provides performance objectives to assist in understanding and managing risk of harm, including mean annual impervious run-off volume. It is guidance only and seeks to assist industry in managing risk with improved stormwater management.
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Melbourne Clearwater 1.5hr Workshop on Climate Resilience
Melbourne Water and DELWP recently launched City Planning Prioritisation: A review of practices and enablers for multi-stakeholder planning for resilient and liveable cities. The report examines decision making processes and planning enablers in 6 cities seen to be exemplars for liveability and resilience.
This free Zoom event (Monday, 16 August 2021 from 1.00pm to 2:30pm) on Mapping interdependencies and understanding community impacts will explore highlights from the City Planning Prioritisation report and feature additional speakers from Melbourne Water, Sydney Water and City of Melbourne to share the frameworks and tools they are applying for resilience and IWM.
- Priyani Madan & Joan Ko / ARUP: Lessons from international exemplars in innovative city planning
- Kate Berg & Candace Jordan/ City of Melbourne: Heat Vulnerability Analysis & mapping flow-on effects on city users
- Phillip Birtles / Sydney Water: Innovation in integrated water cycle planning for the Western Sydney Aerotropolis
- Clare McAuliffe / Melbourne Water : Applying resilience methodology to infrastructure planning
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Scholarships and applications for the next round of the IWC Water Leadership Program are now open!
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The Water Leadership Program (WLP) is an award-winning, annual program that helps emerging leaders to develop the ability to exert influence, drive change and advance challenging integrated water management projects – abilities associated with the most effective integrated water management leaders.
The International WaterCentre and Clearwater are pleased to offer a total of 7 scholarships for the next round of the Water Leadership Program, including 3 Scholarships specifically for Victorian applicants!
Do you have any questions or would like further information about the Water Leadership Program?
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franc.sydney conference - Future-focused, Resilient, Adaptive and Networked Communities
Stormwater NSW have reimagined their state conference and the inaugural franc.sydney conference will be held at on the 8th and 9th November in Sydney.
With the support of Stormwater Queensland, Stormwater Victoria, the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, the Parramatta River Catchment Group and the Georges Riverkeeper, this conference aims to join stakeholders in the urban water management sector across multiple disciplines to become more future-focused, resilient, adaptive and connected. Speakers at franc.sydney include:
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- Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, Resilience NSW
- Gary Jubelin, former NSW Police Detective Chief Inspector
- Zali Steggall OAM, Independent Federal Member for Warringah
- Professor Thomas Astell-Burt, University of Wollongong
- Prof Lesley Hughes, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists
- Rosie Wheen, CEO, WaterAid Australia
- Chris Quin, Resilient Projects
- Dr Katherine Dafforn, Macquarie University
- Professor Holger Maier, The University of Adelaide
- Associate Professor Gary Sheridan, The University of Melbourne
- Dr Jocelyn Dela-Cruz, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
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Meet the Speaker - Dr Geoff Vietz
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This month, we have Dr Geoff Vietz (Director and Principal Scientist for Streamology) discussing his work with the Urban Streamflow Impact Assessment (USIA), and how we can evaluate increases in flow volume, and altered flow pattern to address urbanisation, through streamflow metrics.
SV (Tracey Pham): Thanks again for getting involved with the webinar series and newsletter. I’ll start with an easy question: How did you get into stormwater?
Dr Geoff Vietz: My path into stormwater was an upstream one. I started at the bottom of the catchment with a focus on waterways in my undergraduate (environmental engineering) degree, possibly due to my passion for kayaking and playing in rivers. After several consulting companies, and a PhD in fluvial geomorphology, I returned to Melbourne University to be a Research Fellow. Opportunities then followed to work with the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, and then with the Waterway Ecosystem Research Group - Melbourne Waterway Research Practice Partnership - with Professors Tim Fletcher and Chris Walsh (one of the best decisions I have ever made!). This led to our research on understanding the physical form and functioning of rivers in urban and urbanising catchments, which now informs stormwater management throughout Australia and Internationally.
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SV: Extra points for all of those puns! And now you’re at Streamology. What’s the story there? How did it start?
Dr Geoff Vietz: I saw a disconnect between the research being conducted and the application in the consulting and management realm, hence the need for Streamology. I had no intention of being anything but a sole-trader but it appears that the industry felt the same way. So here we are 7 years later and in the last three years the company has doubled annually. We recognise our roots but are now a much broader-thinking, strategic water and waterway management company, working throughout Australia on urban and regional projects. Our approach is to rethink the challenges we all face and develop the tools and frameworks used by the industry, whether it be for waterway management, monitoring using drones, or stormwater planning.
SV: Wow, it’s good to hear that there’s a strong demand for rethinking the environmental challenges that we face. What is a favourite project you’ve worked on recently, and what aspects did you like about it?
Dr Geoff Vietz: The next one is the best!
SV: Haha, yeh the new and exciting projects are always the best ones… until the next new and exciting one comes along…
Dr Geoff Vietz: I like the projects that are scientifically-based and require vision. These include linking stormwater targets to waterway values (e.g. the Urban Streamflow Impact Assessment, Sydney Water), those that inform catchment-scale waterway management (e.g. the Melbourne Water Waterway Physical Form Framework), and those that support good decision-making (e.g. our current development of the Victorian Waterway Management Strategic Framework, DELWP).
SV: Nice one, and last question, where is your to-go recreational nature spot to take your friends/family?
I am lucky enough to live with my family overlooking the spectacular Ovens River, based in Bright. But I’m sorry I can’t tell you where our secret swimming hole is!
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Urban Streamflow Impact Assessment (USIA): Informing planning to protect waterway values
Host: Stormwater Victoria
Date: Thursday, 12 August 2021
Time: 12.30 pm - 1.30 pm
Location: Online
Speaker: Dr Geoff Veitz, Streamology
Climate resilience: Mapping interdependencies and understanding community impacts
Host: Clearwater
Date: Monday, 16 August 2021
Time: 1.00 pm - 2.30 pm
Location: Online
Speakers :Priyani Madan & Joan Ko, ARUP, Kate Berg & Candace Jordan, City of Melbourne, Phillip Birtles, Sydney Water, Clare McAuliffe, Melbourne Water
Host: Water Research Australia
Date: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Time: All Day
Location: Online
Event Coordinator: Jo Ohlmeyer
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What the PMF? What is the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) and should we be designing for it?
Host: Australian Water School
Date: Wednesday, 1 September 2021
Time: 10.00 am
Location: Online
International Conference on Urban Drainage
Host: ICUD
Date: Monday, 25 to Friday, 29 October 2021
Time: All Day
Location: Melbourne, VIC
Speakers: Various
franc.sydney 2021
Host: Stormwater NSW
Date: Monday, 8 to Tuesday, 9 November 2021
Time: All Day
Location: Dockside Darling Harbour, Sydney, NSW
Speakers: Various
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If you are interested in contributing an article, upcoming industry event or news item to The Outlet e-newsletter, please send an email to president@stormwatervictoria.com.au.
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Stormwater Victoria Major Sponsor: |
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