Slimplifying Urban Stormwater

Designing urban development proposals that meet Water Sensitive Urban Design standards has been made easier with the release of a new version of the popular urban stormwater software, music.

music version 4: Simplifying urban stormwater Developed by eWater and its forerunner Cooperative Research Centres, music is used by more than 3000 urban stormwater professionals working in private practice and in state, regional and local government agencies around Australia.

eWater's Chief Executive Officer, Professor Gary Jones said eWater's music development team has built a new version of its popular urban stormwater software which responds to user feedback and features major advances to the underlying science. ‘This includes greater ability to model stormwater technologies like reuse as well as a straightforward interface that allows users to rapidly get to work on real-world problems,' Professor Jones said. ‘music v4 offers new features that improve flexibility and usability, such as more accurate modelling of bioretention and infiltration systems and capacity to model parameters in addition to total suspended solids, total phosphorus and total nitrogen, as well as many other refinements,' he said.

Professor Jones said music (which stands for ‘model for urban stormwater improvement conceptualisation) is designed to help urban water professionals visualise possible treatment strategies to tackle urban stormwater hydrology and pollution impacts. ‘Melbourne Water uses music to assess land development proposals and to design stormwater treatment strategies for new and existing drainage schemes while Brisbane City Council uses music for urban catchment planning, and to design new stormwater treatment measures in the city,‘ he said. Professor Jones said that music can simulate urban stormwater systems ranging from a suburban block up to 10 km2 (a whole town or suburb), while the time scale can start at 6 minutes and stretch up to 24 hours. ‘Complex stormwater management scenarios can be quickly and efficiently created, and the output viewed as graphs and tables', he said.

‘music v4 is one of the few tools available that can accurately simulate real-time water sensitive urban design.'
music v4 is available at www.ewater.com.au/music  or contact Matthew Sant, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Media contact: Gareth Lloyd, telephone 02 6201 5074 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For more details:   eWater media release