Background

Over the past year, AWP has been supporting Andhra Pradesh-Australia Water Sensitive Cities Partnership. AWP, represented by the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC), has been utilising Australia’s world-leading urban-water sensitive practice in the design of the new city of Amaravati. At the same time, the CRCWSC has been developing a pilot project to demonstrate how alternative approaches to drainage infrastructure can be retrofitted in the existing city of Vijayawada. AWP’s contribution to this partnership will wrap up by the end of 2019, but the partnership will continue under funding from DFAT and Indian agencies.

Objectives

Under the auspice of the Andhra Pradesh-Australia Water Sensitive Cities Partnership Memorandum of Understanding, Australian Partners —Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities Ltd (CRC WSC), Alluvium have provided advice to the Government on how water sensitive city principles can be incorporated into the existing city of Vijayawada and new city Amaravati.

The Amaravati component is nearing completion with the advice provided at two scales—broader advice for adoption of water sensitive city principles across the city, and specific designs for drainage for the Amaravati Government Complex.

Designs for the latter will lead to improved water quality outcomes for the city and in doing so, secures an additional water source and enhances the landscape of the important complex area.

More broadly, the activity has led to the development of a ‘treatment train’ for managing stormwater which implements water sensitive urban design as a continuous water management approach, linking houses to streets and then to water bodies within the central parkland zones.

The Vijayawada component has focused on demonstrating retrofit applications that are transferrable and beneficial to other Indian cities. A pilot project canal and its contributing sub-catchment has been selected and a co-design process was commenced in March 2019 for a water quality treatment train including a constructedwetland on the banks of the canal that will provide a range of ecosystem services in addition to treating stormwater.