Embedding Successful WSUD Asset Management Practices – Lessons fromacross the Ditch

Local and regional government agencies are responsible for managing more WSUD assets than ever before. However, most are struggling to effectively manage and maintain these assets, many of which are in poor functional condition.

The challenges are due, in part, to WSUD being a relatively new technology that combines civil (i.e. manholes and pipes) and landscape (i.e. plants) components. This requires input and involvement from a range of skillsets and staff in the planning, design, construction, establishment, handover and maintenance of these assets.

To address this, a local government community of practice has formed in Greater Melbourne, Australia to actively develop a successful and sustainable approach to WSUD Asset Management. These councils identified the key challenges as ‘bringing it all together’, i.e. integrating the not-so-complicated individual elements within clear, effective, documented processes and systems that support effective asset management.

An initial group of six Greater Melbourne councils (Moreland, Moonee Valley, Yarra, Greater Geelong, Brimbank and Melbourne), supported by Melbourne Water’s Living Rivers program, have since been joined by another five Greater Melbourne councils (Boroondara, Casey, Cardinia, Monash and Whitehorse) to embark on a process mapping and gap analysis project as the first, critical step to understand and