salinity in urban environments–UrbanSalt2005–dealing with salinity in urban environments–UrbanSalt2005–dealing with salinity in urban environments–UrbanSalt2005-

salinity in urban environments–UrbanSalt2005–dealing with salinity in urban environments–UrbanSalt2005–dealing with salinity in urban environments–UrbanSalt2005-

Tues 8th/ Wed 9th February 2005

Parramatta Riverside Theatres

Develop your skills in dealing with urban salinity issues.

Network with building developers, engineers, government staff, environmental planners, works managers and environmental scientists. Visit industry-specialised Trade booths and get the latest information on new technologies and innovations. Themes include -

• Site investigations • Soil testing • Roads and subdivision

works • Building materials and

techniques in saline environments

• Dealing with salinity in existing urban areas

• State and local govt perspectives on urban salinity issues

• The way forward

Scroll down for the Conference Program, Speaker Abstracts and Registration Further Details from conference coordinators GEMS P/L on 9744 5252 or at www.wsroc.com.au

URBANSALT 2005 - CONFERENCE PROGRAM - DAY 1: Tuesday 8th February 2005

9.00 – 9.30 Registrations Presentation Overviews

9.30 -10.00 Welcomes/Opening

Introductions

Councilor Helen Westwood President WSROC; Charmaine Beckett Manager – Salinity Secretariat DIPNR

Yianni Mentis - Program Coordinator - Environment WSROC (Conference Facilitator)

10.00 -10.30

Introductory Presentation

The evolution of urban salinity management

Sian McGhie

Urban Salinity Team Leader

DIPNR

Many people have heard of irrigation and dryland salinity, but only a small number associate salinity with built assets like roads, or with urban areas like Western Sydney. Over the past 10 years, this group of people has steadily grown. They have also learnt a lot about the two-way interactions between natural resource issues and engineering design, construction and management decisions. Some have come to realise the potential magnitude of costs resulting from poor urban salinity management and have worked to breakdown the barriers between natural resource and development professions, to overcome a myriad of issues and avoid these costs. This presentation highlights some of the symptoms of urban salinity; describes various processes and actions that can exacerbate these symptoms; and provides a brief history of the evolution of urban salinity management. The presentation will also provide an outline of how UrbanSalt 2005 was developed, and covers some of the challenges still to be overcome if good urban salinity management is to become standard practice.

10.30- 11.00 Morning Tea

Case Studies from GHD Pty Ltd

Ian Garrard

State Manager, Environmental Management

GHD Pty Ltd

The speaker’s first contact with the extent and magnitude of urban salinity was with the residential areas surrounding the Wagga Wagga Showground. Rising water tables and dissolving building motar were clear evidence that regional water table dynamics apply equally well to urban areas as they do to the more widely accepted rural and catchment case concepts. However, the impacts on properties, infrastructure and personal (property values) costs were orders of magnitudes greater than the rural equivalents. It also raised question of the merit of Development Consents issued for subdivision and the suitability of sites for residential development. That experience was well over ten years ago.

More recently, GHD's experience has addressed a number of Western Sydney sites impacted by salinity which have, in turn, impacted residential subdivisions, individual residential blocks, and infrastructure. To illustrate the process GHD uses, a case study in Western Sydney will be provided outlining the available information, the process of undertaking the Salinity Hazardous assessment (for soils and ground-water), using site feature's as indicator of hazards, and the translation of these into Master Plans and Development Control plans. The case study also outlines the process of working with Consent authorities. The changes in adopted approaches to salinity management are highlighted.

Investigations of Urban Salinity – Case Studies from Western Sydney

Greg McNally Sinclair Knight Merz Pty Ltd

Planning authorities make soil and groundwater investigation a pre-requisite for development approval in areas with saloine soils. Soil conductivity mapping (electromagnetic probing) is required for the larger developments, along with soil and groundwater sampling in test pits and boreholes. Both laboratory and field conductivity measurements are usually carried out. The experience of Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) in using these techniques and interpreting the results at several sites in Western Sydney since 1998 will be described in this presentation. Sites to be described include the 15.4Km2 former ADI land north of St Marys, a proposed golf course and residential development at Schofields; saline inflow to Penrith Lakes from shale bedrock and Tertiary gravels; and potential salinisation in future urban development at Bringelly.

11.00 – 12.30

Theme 1:

Urban Salinity Site Investigations

An Integrated Approach to Site Investigations for Urban Salinity Assessment

Terry Wiesner

Principal, Sydney

John Lean

Principal Geophysicist, Sydney

The assessment of the extent and degree of urban salinity has become increasingly important to councils and developers interested in re-zoning of greenfield sites for residential or industrial use. Piecemeal investigations of land use problems such as urban salinity are neither efficient nor helpful to the process of classifying and subdivision of a site or parts of a site as suitable for particular developments.

An integrated land capability assessment can streamline both the investigation and the decision making process. Compilation of all the various results in a GIS mapping environment provides an effective means for overall review and assessment of the various risks and land capability issues, and for presentation and

Douglas Partners Pty Ltd future use by councils and developers.

This presentation outlines an integrated approach to salinity investigations successfully employed by Douglas Partners

Discussion/Q & A Ian Garrard ; Greg McNally; Terry Wiesner; John Lean

12.30 – 1.00 Lunch

Testing for Impacts on Infrastructure

Simon Leake Operations Manager Sydney Soil Laboratories

Problems Associated with Saline Soils and Tools available to help identify them

Danielle Doughty

Soil Surveyor

DIPNR

Soil landscape mapping and Salinity Hazard Mapping such as those used prepared by DIPNR for Western Sydney are useful tools in identifying areas of potential or existing salinity problems. Their main purpose is to highlight to land managers certain areas that need careful investigation and extra attention if dealing with issues that potentially affect water flow in a catchment. As well as particular maps, the New South Wales Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources also administer a database with point source soil and landscape data (including information on any salinity problems noted). It includes approximately 56500 soil profile descriptions many of which have laboratory information. This presentation will discuss these and other tools which have been developed and are used in the identification of salinity issues.

EMI Surveys and their application in Urban Areas

George Truman

Catchment Officer - Salinity

Namoi Catchment Management Authority

Electromagnetic Induction is an extremely useful tool in resource management. It is used to map and characterise spatial variability of soil properties that are directly related to soil electrical conductivity. The main applications have been in salinity assessment but it is now being used in whole farm planning, water storage siting and leakage, channel leakage, and assisting in soil surveying and precision agriculture. EM surveys show spatial variation in physical and chemical properties of soil. This allows the delineation of distinctly different areas based on EM readings and allows accurate targeting of soil sampling and measurements. This is a critical part of using EMI technology, the need to undertake soil validation and laboratory analysis to identify what is contributing to the spatial variation in electrical conductivity.

In this presentation, EM surveying in urban areas is discussed, including the factors that interfere with EMI outputs and make interpretation difficult. EMI is more useful as a pre-development tool for identifying potential hazards in the landscape and has limited uses in existing built environments because of these interferences and the difficulty with interpretation.

1.30-3.00

Theme 2:

Soil Testing for Urban Salinity

Discussion/Q & A Simon Leake; Danielle Doughty; George Truman

3.00 – 3.30 Afternoon Tea

The Western Australian Experience

Jerome Goh

Senior Waterways Engineer

Main Roads Western Australia

Jeff Anderson

Regional Manager Wheatbelt South, Main Roads WA

The Government of Western Australia has taken cognisance of the fact that Salinity is one of Western Australia’s largest problems. A very substantial percentage of the road network of Western Australia is impacted by the spread of salinity. These problems include the effect on the mechanical stability of pavement and on bitumen surfacing; the loss of strength of base course, which generally leads to wheel rutting and surface deterioration; and salinity impact on waterways structures such as bridges, floodways and culverts. Apart from a preliminary study by ARRB in 1999, Main Roads WA does not have separate salinity programs. It has not carried out additional, sustained and detailed technical or financial investigation or data collection exercise on the impact of salinity on the road network of Western Australia. Maintenance of Commonwealth and State Road network in WA are being carried out under various Term Network Contract (TNC) arrangements. To date, due to a number of issues, useful succinct information has not been provided although specific techniques are now emerging that may be of assistance to the contractors.The presentation will describe these issues and ponder on available challenges in order to address the problems faced by WA Main Roads.

3.30 – 5.00

Theme 3:

Roads and Sub-division Works

Local Government Monitoring and Assessing the Damage

Camille McGregor

Natural Resource Scientist

The North Central Catchment Management Authority (CMA) region in Victoria is generally well served by information on the condition of environmental assets that may be affected by salinity. However, unlike most other assets, there was neither definitive baseline information on the condition of infrastructure, nor any monitoring program to collect information on damage to infrastructure as a result of salinity. In

that Salinity Causes to Infrastructure and Assets

Sinclair Knight Merz Pty Ltd recognition of this serious gap in knowledge, a project was undertaken for the North Central Second Generation Dryland Salinity Management Plan to develop and implement a process for monitoring and reporting the impacts and expenditure on key infrastructure assets that relate to dryland salinity. The “Benchmarking Infrastructure Asset Condition” project had several important outputs for the City of Greater Bendigo and the North Central CMA including - a salinity hazard map for Bendigo; identification of salinity reference sites; an approach to infrastructure asset condition monitoring and reporting; and a reference guide and salinity training for local government asset managers. This presentation will describe the key outcomes of the project , in particular the capacity building for local government aspect of the project.

Products and design techniques for roads affected by salinity

George Vorobieff – Australian Stabilisation Industry Association (Auststab)

Discussion/Q & A Jerome Goh; Camille McGregor; George Vorobieff

URBANSALT 2005 - CONFERENCE PROGRAM - DAY 2: Wednesday 9th February 2005

8.30 - 9.00 Registrations Presentation Overviews

Vapour Barriers and Damp Proof Courses

Kim Jones General Manager Cromford Pty Ltd

Building Code of Australia

Julie Rudnicka Building Codes Officer DIPNR

Water Sensitive Urban Design

Peter Morison

Waterways System Manager

Parramatta City Council

Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) has recently become a popular approach to managing the urban water cycle in Australia. The principles of WSUD can be compatible with salinity management but are most effective when all aspects of the water cycle are considered and managed. The use of stormwater infiltration, filtration and retention technologies tend to dominate WSUD. In a saline environment, these methods may exacerbate urban salinity as a result of waterlogging in less permeable soil landscapes and the creation of pools of concentrated salts. In this presentation, three key Western Sydney projects are discussed, namely the On-Site Retention study of Western Sydney soils, the WSUD Technical Guidelines for Western Sydney and the proposed bioretention experiment at Second Ponds Creek. Together, these projects provide some guidance as to the preferred approach to salinity management using WSUD in Western Sydney. From their analyses, recommendations for WSUD in Western Sydney are outlined.

9.00-10.30

Theme 4: Building in a Saline Environments

Discussion/Q & A Kim Jones; Julie Rudnicka; Peter Morison

10.30 – 11.00 Morning Tea

Chemical and Physical Effects of Salt on Concrete

Vute Sirivivatnanon

Leader, CSIRO Advanced Concrete Engineering Research Team

Mortar and concrete are two important construction materials widely used in both domestic and industrial construction in Australia. With increased incidences of salinity in urban developments, an understanding of how these materials interact with saline ground conditions will assist designers and builders in selecting appropriate building technologies. This presentation examines both the chemical and physical attack of salts on mortar and concrete, and the environment for which each mechanism of attack prevails.

11.00-12.30 Theme 5:

Construction Materials

Design and Installation of Concrete in a Saline Environment

Eric Lume

Engineer, Technical Services - Cement and Concrete Association of Australia

Where saline conditions exist, or are likely to develop over time, the requirements for concrete in contact with the ground need to be assessed to ensure the durability and satisfactory performance of the concrete over the design life of the structure. This presentation is based on a guide produced by Cement Concrete and Aggregates Australia to address the requirements for concrete in saline environments. It considers urban salinity, its measurement and classification, and covers the effects of saline conditions within the soil/groundwater on concrete elements. It covers issues relating to the design, detailing and construction of concrete to ensure durability in these environments. Recommendations on extending the design life and strategies to minimize the effects of salinity are also given. While the information applies to all concrete

members, this presentation will focus on residential slabs and footings, as little guidance in this area currently exists.

Durability of Brickwork Cathy Inglis

Group Technical Manager - Austral Bricks

Brickwork has a long record as one of the most durable and versatile building materials. However, as with all such materials, there are a few essential considerations to ensure satisfactory performance including the correct selection of the brick for the site conditions, proper mortar mixing and suitable design and detailing. Brickwork is subject to natural weathering such as rain, sun, wind and wind-borne sea spray. Probably the most severe effect on the durability of masonry is attack by ground salts. Sulphate and chloride salts are soluble in water, which is how they move through brickwork. These salts will attack bricks and mortar. This presentation will detail the requirements of the BCA and the Masonry Code, the differences between exposure class and general purpose bricks, the mechanisms of salt attack and the subsequent results of incorrect brick use and poor detailing.

Discussion/Q & A Vute Sirivivatnanon; Eric Lume; Cathy Inglis

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch

Urban Salinity and Your Building – Old and New

Rod Kendall - Civil and Structural Engineer

Wagga Wagga City Council and Xeros Kendall

The presentation attempts to answer some common questions about salinity occurring in built environments, for example, what signs indicate that your building and allotment are being affected by Salinity?; is the problem general to your neighbourhood or localised to your allotment and why is this important; What do the building codes require?; what can be done to prevent salinity affecting your existing building?; what common repair techniques work and what don’t?; and how to you determine if an issue is structural or aesthetic?

Repair of Salt Affected Structures

Jack L Heiman - Conservation Consultant

(Previously CSIRO)

The main sources of salinity attack are from moisture and salt contamination from marine aerosols, airborne pollution, saline groundwater and aggressive inland environments The speaker has had significant experience in the assessment of and reparations to heritage buildings and structures which have been seriously affected by salinity. Techniques described in this presentation include lowering the water table, watering of gardens, improvement of ventilation and some undesirable consequences of these treatments. Other techniques, such as damp-proof course replacement, chemical impregnation of membranes, and the use of sacrificial renders are also discussed.

Plants for saline soils in urban landscapes

Nico Marcar – Research scientist CSIRO Forestry Division

Key plant-based management actions for salinised urban landscapes involve reducing deep drainage (e.g. through ‘water-wise’ concepts) and establishing appropriate vegetation in discharge areas (being ‘salinity-wise’) with a view to redressing the water balance. Plant growth and water use are reduced as salt concentrations increase in the soil solution because water is harder to extract and the salts that are absorbed can cause toxicity and nutrient imbalance problems. Salts tend to accumulate in the soil unless leached by rainfall or irrigation. The problem is amplified if watertables are shallow. Plants differ in their survival and growth in saline soils. Key factors include: genetic makeup, cultivation, the severity and degree of association with other stress conditions (such as waterlogging and sodicity), watertable salinity and depth, and site and climate factors. Most plants under cultivation are non-halophytes and show growth reductions with increasing salt concentrations. On the other hand, halophytic plants (e.g. saltbush – Atriplex spp.) tend to show growth stimulation at low levels of salt and growth reduction at higher salt concentrations. This talk provides an overview of the above issues as well as examples (drawn from agricultural and urban studies, where available) of growth of native and exotic trees, shrubs and herbs under salinity and related stresses and their ability to use saline water.

1.30 – 3.00

Theme 6:

Dealing with Salinity in Existing Urban Areas

Discussion/Q & A Rod Kendall, Jack L Heiman, Nico Marcar

3.00-3.45

What’s next? Facilitated discussion and wrap up

Future directions in Urban Salinity Management – facilitated by Chris Gray, General Manager, GEMS

3.45-4.30 Conference Close and Afternoon Tea

Urban Salt 2005 Conference Registration Form A. Delegate Information (Fields marked with * are compulsory)

Title *__________________________ Postal Address *__________________________ Phone Number * ________________________

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B. Registration Fee * All prices on this form are quoted inclusive of Goods & Services Tax (GST)

Conference Days Full Price Tick

√

Full Conference Registration $250

Tuesday 8th February Only $140

Wednesday 9th February Only $140

Total Cost

C. Special Requirements Every attempt will be made to meet these requirements; however this may not be possible in every case.

Special Dietary or Access Requirements ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Card Holders Name _______________________________ Card Number ________/________/________/________

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A tax invoice will be forwarded upon receipt of registration. All cheques are to be made payable to GEMS Pty Ltd and forwarded to UrbanSalt 2005 Conference, PO Box 1221, Burwood, NSW 2047 F. (02) 97478366 P. (02) 97445252

8th & 9th February 2005 Riverside Theatre, Parramatta