Most urban areas in Australia are facing the prospect of increasing scarcity of water. Further pressure arises from evidence that existing levels of water use in many catchments are environmentally unsustainable.

Current approaches to safeguarding urban water quality can be largely ineffective as they focus on standard ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions. Problems of urban water pollution need do be dealt with at source rather than end of pipe and as such will only be remedied through innovative planning.