Webinars
Upcoming Webinars
Webinars in 2024
Please contact us if there’s any particular topic(s) you’d like us to cover in an Ocean Protect webinar.
Previous Webinars
How long will my bioretention last ?
This webinar, held on 22nd November 2023, was presented by Ocean Protect’s Brad Dalrymple and seeks to advance our knowledge of bioretention longevity through research that assesses the ability of bioretention systems to provide consistent water quality and hydraulic performance at the decadal time scale with standard maintenance.
Bioretention systems (also called biofilters, bioretention basins, biofiltration systems, bioswales and raingardens) are one of the most commonly used stormwater treatment asset within Australia given their flexible design, space efficiency and applicability at a variety of scales. In Queensland alone, an estimated $1 billion per year of investment in bioretention systems is predicted. It is important that personnel involved in their design, construction, establishment and management are aware of their expected ‘lifespan’ – after which the systems do not function in a manner consistent with their design intent, and the biofiltration system (or at least the filtration media) should be replaced. The estimated lifespan of biofiltration systems cited in industry-accredited guidelines and anecdotal reports varies significantly. These estimates are anticipated to be based on limited evidence despite the significant implications to their accuracy, particularly for asset managers given the high costs (and resource requirements) required to replace these systems. This webinar included a review of long-term performance monitoring studies and hydraulic analyses of biofiltration systems, including high flow biofiltration systems and ‘conventional’ biofiltration systems.
The webinar includes a short presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
Ensuring widespread maintenance of Water Sensitive Urban Design assets
Are you working in local Government and struggling with ensuring WSUD assets are appropriately maintained ? If so, this webinar is for you.
Hundreds of thousands of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) assets have been installed across Australia to help protect the health of waterways and water resources. Like any assets, their function is dependent on their appropriate maintenance. The majority of WSUD assets, however, seldom receive appropriate maintenance. There is subsequently significant opportunity for local Government to better protect waterways and water resources by improving maintenance practices for WSUD assets (in both public and private ownership).
In this webinar, recorded on 23rd August 2023, Ocean Protect’s Daniel Rider provides an overview of recommended actions for local Government to improve the maintenance of WSUD assets. Daniel also provides an overview of the WSUD Maintenance Compliance Framework that he is leading to help local Government implement and operate their own WSUD maintenance compliance program.
The webinar included a short (15-20 minute) presentation by Ocean Protect’s Daniel Rider , followed by Q&A with attendees.
Five years of treatment performance monitoring for a high flow rate biofiltration system at Western Sydney, Kingswood, NSW
Since May 2018, stormwater treatment performance testing has been undertaken for a high flow biofiltration system located in Western Sydney, NSW, Australia.
The biofiltration system uses an engineered filter media (Filterra) that can treat flows at a significantly higher flow rate than typical biofiltration filter media and the media is produced to strict quality control procedures. For example, the design drainage rate of the engineered filter media is 3550mm/hour, whereas a typical ‘sandy loam’ filter media has a design drainage rate of 200mm/hour. Subsequently, biofiltration systems using this engineered filter media can treat significantly more flow (and can potentially be significantly smaller, typically sized at 0.3% of the upstream catchment) relative to a typical biofiltration system (typically sized at between 1 to 2% of the upstream catchment).
This webinar, held on 3rd August 2023, provides an overview of the high flow (Filterra) biofiltration systems and the performance monitoring undertaken to date.
The webinar included a short (15-20 minute) presentation by Ocean Protect’s Brad Dalrymple, followed by Q&A with attendees.
The New OceanGuard – stopping plastic waste with plastic waste
This webinar, held on 13th July 2023, features the latest innovation from Ocean Protect – our new OceanGuard technology.
The OceanGuard technology is a gully pit basket designed to fit within new and existing gully pits to remove pollution from stormwater runoff. The system has a choice of filtration liners, designed to remove gross pollutants, total suspended solids and attached pollutants as either a stand-alone technology or as part of a ‘treatment train’ (with stormwater treatment assets located downstream to provide further treatment). To date, over 25,000 have been installed across Australia to better protect our oceans and waterways from pollution.
The new OceanGuard provides the same great performance, but includes several new features – including being 90% made from plastic waste. The new OceanGuard will also be significantly lighter and easier to supply and install, and designed and made in Australia (and 100% Australian owned).
In this webinar, Ocean Protect’s Michael Wicks, Warren Jones, Blake Allingham and Brad Dalrymple provided a short (approximately 15-minute) presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
Introducing the StormFilter PFAS
This webinar, held on 15th June 2023, introduced Ocean Protect’s latest innovation – the StormFilter PFAS technology. Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of manufactured persistent organic chemicals that have been developed and used since the 1940s. The use and application of PFAS has previously been widespread, particularly in in aqueous film forming foams for fire-fighting (and associated training) at many military, airport and fire training facilities. The environmental management of PFAS is a high priority for environmental regulators within Australia and globally. The StormFilter PFAS technology is an innovation to our StormFilter® technology, which is comprised of one or more structures that house rechargeable, media-filled cartridges that trap particulates and adsorb pollutants from stormwater runoff such as total suspended solids, hydrocarbons, nutrients, metals, and other common pollutants – with over 30,000 installations in Australia to date. The StormFilter PFAS technology, however, utilises a media blend specifically designed and sized to remove PFAS.
In this webinar, Ocean Protect’s Blake Allingham, Michael Wicks and Brad Dalrymple describes recent ‘real world’ performance testing of the StormFilter PFAS, potential applications, and operation and management requirements. The webinar includes a short (25 minute) presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees,
Filterra biofiltration systems in the ‘real world’
Are you keen to see and discuss ‘real world’ case studies of Filterra biofiltration systems ? Then, please watch this recording of Ocean Protect’s webinar “Filterra biofiltration systems in the ‘real world’”, held on 18 May 2023.
Over the last five years, many Filterra® biofiltration systems have been integrated into new ‘water sensitive’ urban development projects. In particular, this is often due (at least in part) by the significantly smaller area they require (typically 0.3% of upstream area) relative to conventional bioretention systems (that use ‘sandy loam’ media, and often require 3 to 5 times more land) and the growing body of evidence demonstrating their performance (and more widespread local government approval for their use).
In this webinar, Ocean Protect’s Harout Tcherkezian, Nathan Raco and Michael Wicks will show-case several ‘real world’ examples of Filterra biofiltration systems installed within Australia. A wide diversity of project examples will be shown – from small ‘tree pit’ systems to large ‘bioscapes’. Key design, construction and management constraints, challenges and features will be described and discussed, supported by an extensive collection of photos of various systems over time.
The webinar includes a short (~25 minute) presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
Urban stormwater pollution in the ‘real world’
Have you ever wondered what the pollution looks like that is captured within stormwater treatment assets operating in urban areas within Australia ? In this webinar, held on 4th May 2023, Ocean Protect’s Daniel Rider, Fotos Melaisis and Brad Dalrymple take you on a virtual journey underground – and show you exactly what is retained within some of Ocean Protect’s 50,000+ stormwater treatment assets within Australia, including gully pit inserts, gross pollutant traps, membrane filtration systems and cartridge systems. Implications for the appropriate design, construction, and management of stormwater treatment assets will also be discussed.
This webinar included a short (approximately 15-minute) presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
Starting your own WSUD Compliance Program
In 2012, Blacktown City Council established a Water Sensitive Urban Design Compliance Program. The first of its kind in Australia, the Program aims to increase compliance with legal requirements for the management of privately-owned water sensitive urban design assets in the Council area. To improve compliance, a new version of this program is currently being trialled. In this webinar, held on 20th October 2022, Blacktown City Council’s Daniel Rider provided a brief overview of the new program, and outlined what other local authorities (e.g. Councils) can do to start working on their own compliance program.
This webinar included a short (approximately 20-minute) presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
Stormwater - the #1 source of ocean plastic that (almost) no-one is talking about
Approximately 80% of plastic pollution in our ocean comes from land-based sources, with the vast majority flowing through drains to our waterways and oceans via stormwater runoff. Urban stormwater runoff often also contains harmful levels of other less visible (but extremely damaging) pollutants, such as microplastics, suspended solids, heavy metals, nutrients and bacteria. Stormwater is recognised as the key source of pollution in our urban waterways and the vast majority of plastic entering Australian waters is land-based and generated locally. In this webinar, held on 29 September 2022,
Ocean Protect’s Brad Dalrymple discussed (i) how stormwater is such a major source of plastic in our oceans and waterways, (ii) what CAN be done about it and (iii) what IS being done about it within Australia. This webinar included a short (approximately 20-minute) presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
Mass capacity, long-term performance, & maintenance analysis of biofiltration stormwater treatment systems
The role of buildings in sustainable stormwater management
With many local governments and water authorities around Australia requiring that buildings and small developments treat their own stormwater, the requirement to find compact integrated water management solutions to stormwater management can be a challenge for designers and engineers. Integrated water management takes a systems thinking approach to managing urban stormwater, considering multiple objectives of stormwater runoff quality, aesthetics, vegetation, peak discharge flowrates, stormwater volume reduction and water efficiency.
Urban drainage faces major issues as the area of impermeable surfaces connected to a drainage system increases. Existing pipe systems are designed for a specific purpose, such as for drainage for low density housing. As an area develops into higher-density development, and more impervious surfaces are connected, piping systems no longer function well and are more frequently flooded. Additional stormwater runoff volumes and increased flooding frequency scour downstream watercourses and pollute coastal environments.
This webinar was held on 14th July 2022 and was presented by Ian Adams (Organica Engineering), providing an overview of the following:
• New stormwater management requirements for buildings, such as those given in the 2019 Australian Rainfall and Runoff Guide (ARR 2019), new Victorian EPA stormwater laws, and the new best practice Green Star requirements from the Green Building Council of Australia
• Use of the on-line InSite Water toolkit (www.insitewater.com.au) to design for and address recent developments in stormwater requirements for buildings
• Best practice and practical examples in lot-scale stormwater management that meet the requirements.
The webinar included a 20-minute presentation followed by Q&A with attendees.
Achieving better practice stormwater treatment asset maintenance
Hundreds of thousands of stormwater treatment assets have been installed across Australia, and the majority of these assets do not receive appropriate maintenance and monitoring. There is an obvious need to better educate (and resource) industry stakeholders to achieve better stormwater treatment asset maintenance (and associated asset function and protection of our waterways)
This webinar was presented by Ocean Protect’s Fotos Melaisis and Lachlan Shackcloth-Bertinetti on 26 May 2022, and included a range of topics:
–An assessment of current shortage of site-specific maintenance and monitoring programs
– How a lack of proper management can lead to reduced stormwater treatment performance
– Recommendations for policy change and development approval conditions
– Advice for reviewing maintenance contracts for stormwater treatment assets
This webinar included a short (approximately 25-minute) presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
Law & Order for the Maintenance of Stormwater Treatment Assets
Published studies and anecdotal evidence indicates that the majority of the hundreds of thousands of stormwater treatment assets within Australia are highly unlikely to be receiving appropriate maintenance. This lack of appropriate maintenance for STAs has significantly contributed to their poor condition, is currently limiting the stormwater treatment performance of these assets, and is subsequently estimated to be resulting in hundreds of tonnes of additional stormwater pollution (e.g. litter, microplastics, sediment, heavy metals) entering Australia’s waterways every year.
On 12 May 2002, a diverse panel was assembled for this on-line ‘webinar’ event, for an open and frank discussion about the relevant legislation and appropriate enforcement of the maintenance of stormwater treatment assets. The panel included:
– Dr Andrew Thomas, Cooks River Alliance
– Ben Penhallurick, Healthy Land & Water
– Brad Dalrymple, Ocean Protect
– Daniel Rider, Blacktown City Council
– Liza Dicks, Sea Shepherd Australia
– Grahame Lloyd, Sea Shepherd Australia
– Murray Powell, Optimal Stormwater.
The webinar included a short presentation, followed by interactive discussions and responses to questions from attendees.
Evolution of Bioretention Research and Use in the US Mid-Atlantic by Dr Bill Hunt
Biofiltration systems (also called biofilters, bioretention basins, bioretention systems, and raingardens) has been used in the mid-Atlantic US since the early 1990’s. Their design has evolved in great part due to research that has been conducted in the region.
This webinar, held on 28th April 2022, traces that evolution with a focus on media, underdrainage, and “crediting”. Biofiltration-spawned green infrastructure practices was also discussed. The webinar includes a short presentation by Dr Bill Hunt, followed by responses to questions from attendees.
"Myth busting" regulatory authority concerns about proprietary stormwater treatment assets
This webinar was held on 6th April 2022 and aims to review and discuss the issues/ concerns often cited by some regulators associated with the application of proprietary stormwater treatment assets.
This webinar included a 40-minute presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
Ensuring Bioretention Media Performance Success
Engineered media is the heart of bioretention system performance, optimised to filter and/or infiltrate stormwater through a plant-soil-microbe complex. Physical, chemical, and biological treatment removal mechanisms capture sediment, nutrients, heavy metals, bacteria, and oil and grease among other contaminants. Qualification and protection of the media components ensure the bioretention media can meet overall performance objectives. A successful bioretention installation involves oversight of media production, not just onsite construction and installation.
This 1-hour webinar focuses on the framework necessary to transfer raw materials to a blended, commercially installed product. This framework should encompass standard operating procedures (SOPs) for qualifying, sourcing, verifying, producing, storing, and handling media and media specifications to ensure recipe consistency.
Key topics include:
• The role engineered media plays in the overall performance of a bioretention system
• The importance of proper sourcing, producing, and storage of engineered media to ensure optimal performance.
• The role that specifications, QA/QC, and certification play in the consistent production of engineered bioretention media.
Learning from ecosystem management to overcome challenges affecting vegetated stormwater assets
Vegetated stormwater assets are a type of infrastructure asset used to protect waterways from the impacts of urban development by improving the quality and reducing the quantity of stormwater that drains into waterways from urban areas. They include bioretention systems, constructed wetlands, sediment basins and swales. Vegetated stormwater assets are often managed by local governments using an infrastructure asset management approach.
This webinar will:
• demonstrate that vegetated stormwater assets more closely resemble ecosystems than traditional infrastructure assets
• identify challenges affecting vegetated stormwater assets arising from limitations with current asset management approaches, and
• recommend ecosystem management practices to overcome these challenges.
This free webinar focusses on Queensland, however, as the planning, development and asset management frameworks in Queensland are similar to other states in Australia, the issues and recommendations presented in this webinar may be useful to practitioners elsewhere across the country.
The webinar includes a short presentation followed by questions and answers.
Best Practice Design & Management of the OceanSave GPT
The OceanSave is a vortex type engineered stormwater treatment asset designed to remove litter, gross pollutants, sediment and associated pollutants from stormwater runoff as either a stand-alone technology or as part of a ‘treatment train’ (with stormwater treatment assets located downstream to provide further treatment).
This webinar provides an overview of the OceanSave – its components, performance, and how to appropriately design, install, and manage these assets to ensure their optimal function. The webinar includes a short presentation by Ocean Protect’s Damien Egan & Daniel Page, followed by answers to questions from attendees.
Bioretention & High Rate Biofiltration - Research & Performance Updates from USA
Bioretention is one of the most widely used and heavily researched stormwater control measures in the United States. However, there is a growing gap between lessons learned from academic research and what is applied to protect our rivers, lakes, and oceans from urban pollution. Bioretention media and system component optimisation that is recommended by research varies from region to region and typically requires significant quality control and oversight to achieve expected water quality goals.
This presentation will summarise the latest bioretention research from literature reviews performed by the Mile High Flood District and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and examine issues with how this knowledge is transferred into practice. Topics include media specification, vegetation, nutrient removal, and designing for maintenance. Recent efforts to improve and enforce bioretention specifications from a regulatory standpoint will also be discussed in the context of new guidance from the Washington State Department of Ecology.
In response to challenges associated with deploying successful bioretention systems, there are a growing number of innovative high rate biofiltration (HRBF) devices in USA. Field monitoring data from the latest International BMP Database summary will be used to compare bioretention and HRBF water quality performance for multiple urban pollutants of interest.
Lastly, a brief discussion on data gaps will be introduced, including an introduction of research which aims to examine the long-term performance and maintenance demands of both conventional bioretention and HRBF.
Blacktown City Council's WSUD Compliance Program
In 2012, Blacktown City Council established a Water Sensitive Urban Design Compliance Program. A first of its kind in Australia, the Program aims to increase compliance with legal requirements for the management of privately-owned water sensitive urban design assets in the Council area.
This webinar will provide an overview of the Program as well as a project that seeks to improve its capacity to increase compliance with legal requirements. It may offer important insights for local authorities seeking to establish their own compliance programs and initiatives.
Does bioretention actually work?
Over recent decades, the implementation of stormwater control measures (SCMs) to achieve a more ‘water sensitive’ urban environment and reduce the hydrologic and water quality impacts of urban development has increased across Australia (and overseas). With Australia, biofiltration systems (also called biofilters, bioretention basins, bioretention systems, bioswales and raingardens) are one of the most commonly used SCM given their flexible design, space efficiency and applicability at a variety of scales. But, do biofiltration systems actually work ? Specifically, are biofiltrations likely to provide a sustained, effective stormwater treatment function consistent with their intent ?
In this free webinar, Ocean Protect’s Brad Dalrymple and Michael Wicks will provide a brief (25-minute) review of available lab and field-scale studies of their stormwater treatment performance, assess the ‘transition’ of performance data to the ‘real world’, and outline key recommendations – followed by Q&A with attendees.
This webinar is provided to assist personnel from local government (and other regulatory authorities) and private industry involved in the planning, design, implementation, management and review of biofiltration systems.
Best practice design and management of Gross Pollutant Traps (GPTs)
Development assessment for stormwater quality management – tips, tricks & tribulations
Development Assessment personnel subsequently have the challenging task of undertaking a rapid review of technical information (including reporting, drawings and modelling files) to determine whether the proposed strategy (and associated SCMs) is appropriate – and provide suitable development approval conditions.
In this free webinar, Ocean Protect’s Brad Dalrymple and Michael Wicks will provide a brief (20-minute) presentation of common deficiencies in stormwater quality-related aspects of new development applications – followed by answers to questions from attendees. The webinar will focus on the following key areas (for both proprietary and non-proprietary SCMs):
– Modelling ‘tricks’ that are commonly applied that will exaggerate the performance of SCMs, and how to quickly identify them
– Design, implementation, and management mistakes that are commonly made that invariably lead to the poor function of SCMs (including several ‘real world’ examples)
– Approval conditions to consider applying to support the appropriate long-term function of SCMs proposed as part of new development.
Best practice design & management for the OceanGuard and StormFilter treatment train
Stormwater treatment performance for a high flow rate biofiltration system at Western Sydney, Kingswood, NSW
The biofiltration system uses an engineered filter media (Filterra) that can treat flows at a significantly higher flow rate than typical biofiltration filter media and the media is produced to strict quality control procedures. For example, the design drainage rate of the engineered filter media is 3550mm/hour, whereas a typical ‘sandy loam’ filter media has a design drainage rate of 200mm/hour. Subsequently, biofiltration systems using this engineered filter media can treat significantly more flow (and can potentially be significantly smaller, typically sized at 0.3% of the upstream catchment) relative to a typical biofiltration system (typically sized at between 1 to 2% of the upstream catchment).
This webinar provides an overview of the high flow (Filterra) biofiltration systems and the performance monitoring undertaken to date. The webinar will include a short (15-20 minute) presentation, followed by Q&A with attendees.
How SQID proprietors will exaggerate stormwater treatment performance claims via SQIDEP
Within Australia, the vast majority of stormwater industry stakeholders (including Ocean Protect) have been in favour of a national program for the evaluation and verification of stormwater quality improvement devices (SQIDs).
Stormwater Australia’s (2018) Stormwater Quality Improvement Device Evaluation Protocol (SQIDEP) describes a criteria for the testing and performance claim reporting of SQIDs and was anticipated to be the basis of this national program. Unfortunately, SQIDEP (in its current form) is recognised by many key regulators and other industry stakeholders as having significant deficiencies which, if allowed to remain without amendment, will produce exaggerated or over-estimated treatment performance results for SQIDs – and, ultimately, reduced ‘actual’ protection of the health of our waterways. Many of these deficiencies have been documented in submissions by key industry stakeholders to Stormwater Australia, including Stormwater Queensland and Stormwater NSW.
In this webinar, Michael Wicks (Technical Director at Ocean Protect) explains the deficiencies within SQIDEP, how SQID proprietors are subsequently able to exaggerate performance claims, and the associated implications to the design (and ultimate function) of SQIDs. This is anticipated to assist designers and regulators in their understanding of SQIDEP and alternative SQID protocols.
DISCLAIMER:
© IES Stormwater Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
Ocean Protect webinars and associated files remain the ownership of IES Stormwater Pty Ltd. Any unauthorised use is expressly prohibited.
Ocean Protect webinars are for general discussion purposes, and the views expressed by presenters and attendees are opinions only. Care has been taken in the preparation of the webinars, however no guarantee, representation or warranty is given or made as to the accuracy or completeness of the information conveyed. Personnel seeking information relevant to their own personal circumstances should seek independent advice as appropriate. To the maximum extent permitted at law, IES Stormwater Pty Ltd and its affiliates, and the presenters and attendees of the webinars, exclude liability for any loss or damage to any party caused by or arising from reliance on its content.