Assessment of recreational waterways
Access to high-quality recreation opportunities, particularly local waterways, holds significant importance for Western Sydney, where the impacts of extreme heat are more severe compared to other areas of Sydney. In addition to improving resilience to extreme heat events, swimming sites offer a boost physical and mental well-being and promote a circular economy through reuse of water.
This project uses Sydney Science Park (SSP) as the case study to outline the key risks, issues and regulations t that would need to be considered in planning a waterway swimming site within master-planned communities. Lessons learned from this project will help provide a framework to help inform developers on how to provide local communities with increased safe and healthy access to recreational waterways.
Photo: Unsplash/Todd Quackenbush
What are the options for recreational swimming?
Three swimming site options are currently being considered for Sydney Science Park (SSP):
- a natural waterway;
- a waterway fed by natural water but controlled, if needed, by additional intervention;
- a separate waterway with natural features but not connected to the natural waterway.
Other water-based activities are also being considered, including splash parks and water-sports zones.
How will we approach this?
The project will identify key stakeholders, processes and regulations relevant to the establishment of a swimmable water recreation site within SSP. With process and guidance in mind, the unique risks posed by each swimming site option will be explored. Relevant national and international case studies will be documented, highlighting any known outcomes, issues or ongoing problems that might exist in these. Information will be assembled using published documents and interviews with key personnel and local stakeholders.
What are the likely challenges?
Sydney Water has initiated an Urban Plunge program to assist waterways to be used as public swimmable sites. This requires a risk assessment of the waterway for recreational use, including sequential assessments of feasibility, water and sediment quality, infrastructure needs, sanitary status and finally the establishment of an ongoing monitoring program that incorporate key elements of the risk assessment.
There are two main challenges to planning for a recreational waterway as SSP:
- The planned waterway may receive elevated levels of stormwater runoff and/or recycled water, neither of which are covered in adopted guidelines for recreational water use.
- As the site is still in the planning phase, integrated water cycle management approaches are still under consideration. This creates flexibility to plan for a recreational swimming site, yet the real-life operational performance needed to conduct a formal risk assessment cannot be ensured.
What’s next?
We will propose an action plan that details the required activities and identifies the responsible parties for each action to enable the establishment of a recreational waterway within SSP (and the broader Western Sydney Aerotropolis).
We will recommend actions for approving bodies that could include, for example, development of policies to accelerate the use of recycled water on recreational waterways.
Keep an eye out for the upcoming publication of results on our website.
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