The new urban catchment : cleaning up Cox’s Creek

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTIONS Main question: How can a decentralised design system protect harbour pollution by considering the urban catchment?

Sub question: How to solve Cox’s Bay harbour contamination by evolving WSD strategies?

ABSTRACT: Clean water is essential for lives, not only in terms of human beings’ survival but also for growing foods, keeping a healthy natural system and maintaining biodiversity. However, due to the pressure of urbanisation and population growth, an impending water crisis has been recognised as one of the most severe challenges to human society in the 21st century. In New Zealand, there is an increasing number of harbours that have already been identified as contaminated. Promoting water quality is virtual that integrated urban design is raised to manage the water system effectively.

Through drawing an urban design, this project will explore how Water Sensitive Design (WSD) can be applied to real-life projects to mitigate or even address catchment water contamination. The Cox’s Bay catchment is chosen as a test site to reflect the function and impacts of WSD strategies in promoting water quality. The project adopts the framework of Research by Design through qualitative research methods. The proposed design employs a range of the techniques including tree pits, plant boxes, permeable pavements, rain gardens, vegetated swales, and above-detention pond (wet pond and constructed wetland). Meanwhile, four classified land zone types are used for the test: commercial area, community streets, natural small-sized reserve and multi-function park.

The aims of this study are not only to deal with Cox’s Bay catchment water quality issues but also contribute to future stormwater management to achieve the goal of controlling pollution. The further expectation of this project is to inspire other scholars to further explore WSD in tackling similar stormwater problems.