Urban Water Solutions was engaged by Greater Western Water (GWW) to develop an updated hydraulic model of the Upper Kororoit Creek (UKC) catchment for use in future planning.

The project involved the rebuild, calibration and system performance of the current UKC catchment conditions, as well as the development of an ultimate growth scenario (2050) and intermediate development horizon scenarios (2028, 2033, 2038). These development scenarios were then merged with the hydraulic model of Melton completed in early 2022, for use in system performance analysis and future planning.

The Melton model was developed to assess future options for the Melton Recycled Water Plant (RWP). The Melton RWP is a key component of the Western Irrigation Network (WIN) and will supply recycled water to thousands of hectares of farmland in the Parwan-Balliang region. The RWP is currently projected to receive flows exceeding 20GL per year by 2070, a significant increase on the current flows of approximately 5GL per year.

The system performance analysis of the combined Melton-UKC model was used to determine what future assets would be required, and when these assets wouldneed to be constructed to ensure GWW continues to meet the required containment standards, whilst being able to reliably supply irrigators in the district.

The final combined merged growth model contains approximately 1,300km of pipeline, 81,000 properties and over 50 sewer pump stations.