Brief summary

MUSIC – ‘Model for Urban Stormwater Improvement Conceptualisation’ – enables users to evaluate conceptual designs of stormwater management systems to ensure they are appropriate for their catchments.  MUSIC simulates both quantity and quality of runoff from catchments ranging from a single house block up to many square kilometres, and the effect of a wide range of treatment facilities on the quantity and quality of runoff downstream. 

The main features of the tool are:

1. Ability to generate runoff and pollutant loads from a range of different urbanised, agricultural, and natural land use types.
2. Allows users to define site specific land uses and import design and observed hydrographs.
3. Wide variety of treatment methods which can be modelled in series or parallel; such as gross pollutant traps, buffers, swales, infiltration systems, retention basin, wet ponds and wetlands.
4. Extensive range of outputs from MUSIC simulations including time series graphs, statistics, cumulative frequency graphs and life cycle costs.

MUSIC is used widely in Australasia in the assessment and regulation of runoff from development at strategic and site specific levels.  Use of the software allows treatment trains to be optimised and full life costings for SUDS to be derived. 

Within the UK there is significant opportunity for the use of the model in the planning, design and control of development which meets runoff, water quality, and water sensitive urban design standards.

eWater CRC in partnership with JBA Consulting is adapting the MUSIC model for use in the UK.  To assist this, the partners are establishing a collaborative relationship with key academics in the UK.   With the group we will examine the current state of the science as it is represented in MUSIC, the applicability of that science to UK conditions and identify linkages to other research programs and works which may also be of interest and/or benefit.  It is intended that a similar industrial reference group is established for practitioners.

Start date

01 April 2011

Finish date

01 January 2012

Organisations involved

JBA Consulting,  eWater CRC, Academic and Industrial Reference Groups (currently being established)

Contact

Marc Pinnell.  JBA Consulting.

URL

www.music4water.co.uk