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INFRASTRUCTURE

ROUSE HILL LANDSCAPE RESTORATION OF RIPARIAN CORRIDORS & STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE


Riparian restoration of 16 hectares of stormwater infrastructure works for Stage 3 of the Rouse Hill Development Area in Sydney’s north-west growth sector. Landscape restoration works included bushland reconstruction and regeneration to all areas within the 1-in-100-year flood zone, incorporating channel reconstruction, detention basins and bushland remnants.

Landscape Principles in Practice:

  • Value Our Landscape:  A landscape rehabilitation plan prepared at the concept stage of the project ensures design input into engineering works to maximize potential for optimal landscape restoration outcomes.
  • Protect – Enhance – Regenerate:  Restoration works included bushland reconstruction and regeneration to all areas within the 1-in-100-year flood zone, incorporating channel reconstruction, detention basins and bushland remnants, including restoration of endangered historic plant communities.    
  • Design with Respect: New watercourses and detention basins are designed to accommodate one-in-100-year floods and fully-structured natural communities (with full ground, shrub and mid-stratum layers and canopy). New site soil stripping and reinstatement processes were developed for the project to conserve important existing soil landscape properties and buffer the works from chemically hostile sub-soils.
  • Design for the Future:  A one-hectare experimental plot has been established to monitor the direct seeding of a select suite of native grasses, to inform future landscape restoration approaches, including broad acre restoration projects.
  • Embrace Responsive Design:  Monitoring and reporting on landscape restoration to basins and channels at three-monthly intervals measures outcomes against key restoration goals. Incorporating experimental design into projects can provide a relatively inexpensive method of obtaining substantial information for the development of innovative approaches to future projects.

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AILA's Climate Change Adaptation Skills for Professionals Program 2008 - 2010 has been assisted by the Australian Government through The Commonwealth Department of Climate Change.