Assessment of nonmarket benefits of WSUD in a residential development: Belle View case study

This report describes the application of benefit transfer methods for a specific site, Belle View Estate, in Western Australia. Belle View Estate is a proposed 44 ha residential development located in Bellevue, 16.5 km north-east of Perth. The land is a portion of a larger 99.5 ha landholding comprising Lot 239 Wilkins Street (formerly Goodchild Reserve) and a portion of Lot 799 Katharine Street, Bellevue. The site is transacted by Lot 33 Wilkins Street, a City of Swan owned drainage reserve (Bellevue Drain). The wider landholding is likely to be developed in a number of stages (Coterra Environment 2017). The water sensitive urban design (WSUD) technologies considered in this development are constructed wetlands and living stream. Constructed wetlands are extensively vegetated water bodies that use sedimentation, filtration and biological uptake processes to remove pollutants from stormwater. A living stream is a constructed or retrofitted stormwater conveyance channel that mimics the characteristics (morphology and vegetation) of natural streams. In addition to providing pollution benefits, both types of systems could generate a range of nonmarket benefits, such as amenity and biodiversity protection (Department of Water 2016). The constructed wetland system will consist of a series of interlinked seasonal (ephemeral) and permanent open water bodies in the Helena River floodplain. The area of permanent open water is approximately 4.5 ha, and the area of seasonal wetlands is approximately 10.4 ha (Figure 1). The area of living stream is approximately 1.7 ha. The objective of the study is to estimate the nonmarket benefits of constructed wetlands and living streams in a private residential development[1]. In the following sections, we present the methodology used for the transfer of benefits, followed by the results of the assessment and a discussion section.