We are piloting the Urban Water Stewardship Framework in South East Queensland, a tool for assessing and reporting on the level of practice applied to key aspects of urban water management.

The Urban Water Stewardship Framework (UWSF) is a tool for assessing and reporting on the level of practice applied to key aspects of urban water management.

The Moreton Bay Marine Park is under increasing pressure from the cumulative effects of climate change, increasing coastal and urban development, and direct uses. Improving water quality is important to build the resilience of Moreton Bay and its ecosystems. The amount of nutrient and sediment generated from urban areas has a proportionally high sediment and nutrient load per m2 due to its impervious surfaces and resultant high runoff coefficient. These loads are recognised as impacting processes on the outstanding values of the Moreton Bay Marine Park.

The UWSF is already being implemented in the reef regions through the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan (Reef 2050 WQIP) and seeks to reduce pollution from all land-based activities, including urban land use. The development of the UWSF to assess the effectiveness of urban land use management was an action under the Reef 2050 WQIP. This framework satisfies that objective and has been designed so that results can be included in regional report cards and the Reef Water Quality Report Card. Although developed within the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) regions, the UWSF is applicable to all of Queensland, and is of particular relevance to South East Queensland, where there is a high density of urban land use close to nationally and internationally recognised high value waterways.

The main purpose of the UWSF is to provide a consistent means of evaluating and reporting on the level of practice applied to urban water management-related activities.

This is required to provide an evidence-based foundation for the development of targeted support strategies by various levels of government to improve urban water management and reduce pollutant loads exported to receiving waters and connected local waterways.

The UWSF has been designed to generate a metric for reporting urban water management practice level in regional report cards across Queensland.

It can also be used as an evidence-based means of reporting on urban water management performance to senior management within Council.

The UWSF applies primarily to local governments, but has aspects that apply to the development and construction sector, and water service providers (where this service is separate from Council).

The UWSF covers on-ground management activities linked to erosion and sediment control, stormwater management, and operation and maintenance of sewage treatment plants and sewer networks.

This includes not only operational management aspects, but also planning cycle aspects relating to policy, planning and governance, capacity building, training, research and development, and monitoring and evaluation.

By benchmarking practice levels for urban water management activities in a standardised way, issues and hotspots can be identified more clearly. In turn, this information can be used by all levels of government to develop and invest in targeted support strategies to improve urban water management.

We are rolling out a series of UWSF pilot workshops as part of our South East Queensland implementation strategy.

The workshops provide an opportunity to collaborate across Council, promote improved working relationships and enable knowledge sharing.

Your contribution will help ensure that future initiatives best target the needs of Council, helping to drive leading practice in urban water management.

Special thanks to Redland City Council and Logan City Council for participating in SEQ’s first UWSF pilot workshops.

We look forward to working together with other SEQ Councils to further develop our understanding your needs and how we can best support you. Please reach out if you are interested in a fit for purpose pilot for your LGA.

If you are interested in participating in an UWSF pilot workshop, please contact Rachael Nasplezes (Healthy Land & Water) on 0459 213 477 or rachael.n@hlw.org.au.