A healthy waterway provides essential services and functions to support environmental, social and economic outcomes, including more liveable cities and healthy, resilient communities.
This framework brings together existing principles and guidelines recommended in the National Water Quality Management Strategy, which the federal and all state and territory governments have adopted for managing water quality. It allows decision-makers to determine management responses that meet waterway health outcomes and reflect the community’s environmental values and uses of waterways.
Management responses could include specific development controls for stormwater management, informing license limits for waterway discharges, or programs that raise awareness of land use activities that protect and enhance the health of rivers and creeks. Where appropriate, management responses can be implemented through regional and local planning instruments, environmental regulation, integrated water cycle management plans, coastal management programs required under the Coastal Management Act 2016 or other catchment management plans for restoring and protecting the health of waterways.
The framework can support decision-making by authorities responsible for the management of land and waterways.
A dataset to support the implementation of the Risk-based Framework is available on the SEED data portal. The dataset represents a first-pass risk assessment to help identify priorities for management actions or future studies on the effects of land use activities on the health of estuaries in NSW. The dataset is accompanied by the report NSW Estuary Health Risk Dataset.
Applying the Risk-based Framework to improve stormwater management in Wianamatta-South Creek
- Mapping the natural blue grid elements of Wianamatta–South Creek: High ecological value waterways, riparian vegetation communities and other water dependent ecosystems (PDF 15.4MB) – This document describes the background and methods for developing a map of the natural blue grid in the Wianamatta–South Creek catchment. The grid is made up of waterways, riparian vegetation communities, wetlands, and other water dependent ecosystems. This document provides examples of how the map has been used to support the strategic planning of the Western Parkland City.
- Performance criteria for protecting and improving the blue grid in the Wianamatta–South Creek catchment: Water quality and flow related objectives for use as environmental standards in land use planning (PDF 6.7MB) – This document describes the background and methods of developing performance criteria for protecting and improving the health of the blue grid in the Wianamatta–South Creek catchment. The performance criteria were used to develop stormwater management targets and other planning controls for the Aerotropolis and Mamre Rd Precincts in Western Sydney.
- Review of water sensitive urban design strategies for Wianamatta-South Creek (PDF 3.7MB) – This document describes the feasibility of a range of water sensitive urban design strategies for achieving new stormwater management targets that protect and restore the blue grid in the Wianamatta-South Creek catchment.
- Wianamatta-South Creek stormwater management targets (PDF 4.0MB) – This document outlines the methods for developing new construction and operational phase stormwater quality and quantity (flow) targets for new developments in Wianamatta-South Creek.
- Technical guidance for achieving Wianamatta–South Creek stormwater management targets (PDF 3.7MB) – The guide provides specific direction on what modelling to undertake, assumptions to make and which data to use to demonstrate that the stormwater management targets are being achieved.
