​​​​​​​​​Auckland's population is expected to increase by over one million people in the next 30 years, which will see as many as 400,000 new homes built (Auckland Council, 2012).
​Water sensitive design (WSD) is essential to support the vision of The Auckland Plan. It promotes land use planning practices that balance land development with the ecosystem services necessary to support it. Ecosystem services are the benefits people receive from nature, and are categorised as provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting (Millennium Assessment, 2005). This balance between land development and ecosystem services ensures the resilience of our region's environment and in particular the values and sensitivities of our harbours and watercourses.
WSD is an inter-disciplinary design approach, which considers stormwater management in parallel with the ecology of a site, best practice urban design, and community values. WSD aspires to ensure multiple public benefits from stormwater management and to develop a unique 'sense of place' for our communities. It also seeks to deliver low risk and better return on investment for land developers.
This guideline document, Water Sensitive Design for Stormwater, known as GD04, introduces the principles and objectives for WSD and guides the practitioner through a design programme for land development. WSD can be applied to development scenarios in both greenfield (undeveloped) and brownfield (previously developed) situations.
A WSD approach in a greenfield environment directs development to appropriate areas of a catchment, and provides for intensified or clustered development in these locations to minimise land disturbance and earthworks. The result is an effective balance of protected and enhanced natural environments and associated ecosystem services to support the proposed development, and more broadly the lifesupporting capacity of our communities.