Stormwater management and drainage design are critical parts of the civil infrastructure. Whether the public are aware of it or not, every development, from a 2-lot subdivision to a new Precinct Structure Plan requires design of stormwater drainage systems.

Though across Victoria the standards or objectives relating to drainage design are relatively standard, the standard methodology (or manual) for showing how compliance is achieved is not.

Currently, there are numerous drainage manuals or guidelines applied across Victoria such as:

• Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR) 2019 - Geoscience Australia
• The Infrastructure Design Manual (IDM) - Local Government Infrastructure Design Association
• The Engineering Design and Construction Manual for Subdivision in Growth Areas (EDCM) - Victorian Planning Authority
• Various Local Council Manuals
• Guide to Road Design Part 5B: Drainage-Open Channels, Culverts and Floodways - Austroads
• Numerous Melbourne Water Corporation documents:
• Waterways
• Wetlands
• Bioretention Systems
• Flood Safety
• Hydrologic and hydraulic design
• Numerous other CMA Documents, and
• Many others.

As such, Stormwater Victoria (SV), as a volunteer industry body, have identified the need for a consolidated manual, that covers all aspects of drainage design and assessment across multiple spatial scales.

It is the aim of this manual to ‘provide a centralised set of processes to assist drainage professionals in the design and review of drainage assets’. Unlike ARR 2019, which is a guideline showing many ways of doing things, SV envisages that this manual will be prescriptive. i.e. this is the problem, here are the 1/2/3 ways we recommend this problem solved, this is what you need to show (as a designer) or look for (as an assessor), with worked examples.

It is envisaged that the ultimate document will take a similar form to that of the Queensland Urban Drainage Manual (QUDM).