Councils and developers
Information to assist with development activities
Councils and consultants - NorBE Tool
WaterNSW has developed the NorBE Tool to help councils and consultants do an online assessment.
Please contact WaterNSW regarding access to the NorBE tool.
NorBE Tool
Local councils and consultants for the Greater Sydney catchment area can login to use the NorBE tool.
User Guides to assist in using the NorBE Tool:
WaterNSW also provides training and support for councils and consultants to undertake NorBE assessments. Where applications are referred to WaterNSW for concurrence, they are processed within 40 days.
Appropriate use of current recommended practices (CRPs) and standards is an important part of the NorBE assessment and the conditions of consent/concurrence.
WaterNSW also provides standard conditions of concurrence to assist councils with preparing their conditions of consent to appropriately mitigate any water quality issues identified in the NorBE assessment.
Land use planning and zoning
Local councils are responsible for land use zoning in the catchment. To protect water quality, it is important to ensure zoning decisions are consistent with the physical capability of land.
Land use planning and zoning
WaterNSW has developed strategic land and water capability assessments (SLWCA) for land in the catchment.
The SLWCA assists councils to prepare and review their local environmental plans (LEPs) and decide on land use zoning and other provisions that are appropriate to protect water quality. WaterNSW has provided councils with SLWCA data, maps, guidelines and training to help prepare their LEPs. These inputs included:
- slope
- soil erodibility
- soil permeability
- soil depth
- distance to watercourses
- vegetation cover.
Stage two of the SLWCA involved modelling of land and water capability for 10 land use types:
- Intensive livestock agriculture (map PDF, 4142.78 KB)
- Intensive plant agriculture (map PDF, 4135.08 KB)
- Extensive agriculture (map PDF, 4162.51 KB)
- Forestry (map PDF, 2782.2 KB)
- Residential unsewered lots 2,000 - 4,000 square metres (map PDF, 3462.36 KB)
- Residential unsewered lots 4,000 square metres - 2 hectares (map PDF, 3426.96 KB)
- Residential sewered lots (map PDF, 3416.63 KB)
- Retail/ Commercial (map PDF, 3460.09 KB)
- Light Industrial (map PDF, 3454.04 KB)
- Hazardous/ Heavy Industrial (map PDF, 3459.45 KB).
When viewing the SLWCA maps, if the risk to water quality is high, there will be more red and orange areas on the map. This means that the land has low to very low capability to sustain that particular land use from a water quality perspective. If the risk to water quality is low, there will be more green and yellow areas on the map, meaning that the land has a high to moderate capability land to sustain that particular land use from a water quality perspective.
The SLWCA maps do not show land use capability information for National Parks or WaterNSW owned land. Each land use map blocks land areas that are not relevant to that particular land use.
SLWCA can be used by councils, other planning authorities, and WaterNSW to help determine the potential impact of future land use changes on water quality. Planning authorities can use information from the SLWCA with other environmental constraints mapping and data, and social and economic information, to help develop their planning proposals. Incorporating capability information at an early stage will help planning authorities to decide land use zones and accompanying land uses that are most likely to have a neutral or beneficial effect on water quality.
MUSIC - Climate zone key maps
MUSIC is the Model for Urban Stormwater Improvement Conceptualisation.
MUSIC
Using MUSIC in the Sydney Drinking Water Catchment (PDF, 5825.93 KB) is a manual providing technical information to help design acceptable MUSIC stormwater quality models for more complex proposed urban and rural land use developments. Certain thresholds related to the number of subdivision lots, total impervious or disturbed area, or a high risk / sensitive site trigger the requirement for MUSIC modelling in the Sydney drinking water catchment. A MUSIC model prepared using the manual must accompany those development applications triggering the use of MUSIC, to assess whether the proposal would achieve a neutral or beneficial effect on water quality (NorBE). The aim of the manual is to help proponents and consultants undertake stormwater quality modelling using MUSIC software to design stormwater treatment and management measures for developments in Sydney drinking water catchment to ensure to protect the quality of water flowing into drinking water storages now and in the future.
Who should use this manual
The manual is for use by consultants who have already completed MUSIC training and know the basic fundamentals of MUSIC modelling. The manual demonstrates how to set up a MUSIC model for pre-development and post-development site layouts, considering the existing site characteristics, drainage configuration, the climatic region, and the configuration of post-development site layout and treatment measures in the context of NorBE.
See the Climate Zone Key Map (PDF, 255.79 KB) to select the rainfall zone map for your development area.
The following files are in .mlb format for the MUSIC software.
Guideline for development adjacent to the upper canal and Warragamba pipelines
Best management practice information for use by councils and other consent and determining authorities when assessing any development or activity that may impact on Controlled Areas owned by WaterNSW. It is also intended to inform proponents whose proposals may impact on these Controlled Areas.
Related links
WaterNSW acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands and waters on which we work and pay our respects to all elders past, present and emerging. Learn more