Code of Practice - Irrigated Public Open Space - SA Water

7.0 DROUGHT RESPONSE PLAN
A drought response plan should be developed to ensure
strategies are in place to deal with drought scenarios where
water availability for irrigated public open space is reduced.
The objective of the drought response plan is to provide a
staged strategy that protects community assets and valuable
recreation facilities while reducing water consumption
during periods of drought. The costs of re-establishing the
landscape and irrigated turf can be significant.
As a result of drought conditions and water shortages in
national capitals across Australia, water restrictions have
been introduced ranging from permanent water
conservation measures where management of IPOS must
follow best practice management to Level 5 restrictions
where irrigation of public open space using potable mains
water is prohibited. Organisations responsible for managing
IPOS must be prepared to take appropriate action to
comply with water use reduction regimes and restrictions.
In developing a drought response plan the following issues
require consideration:
• A Water Efficiency Management Plan (WEMP) should
be developed in accordance with the Code of Practice.
The WEMP should be implemented as part of
permanent water conservation measures.
• All irrigated sites should be categorised according to the
TQVS standard and functional objective of the site as
part of the WEMP.
• An inventory of all significant and feature trees and
garden beds should be made prioritising them in order
of importance.
• Turf sites should be assessed against functional standards
and reduced in size to the minimum area required to
meet the functional objective. Areas where irrigation is
withdrawn should be re-landscaped with drought tolerant
plantings and treatments.
• A strategy of withdrawing irrigation from less functional
sites should be prepared, to be implemented as water
availability decreases.
• Alternate water supplies to potable mains water should
be investigated and where possible accessed for irrigation
purposes. Ground water or recycled water may have to be
transported to critical areas of the landscape i.e.
significant trees or turf cricket pitches, as mains water
availability reduces.
• Sports grounds may have to be closed to competitive
sport where grounds become unsafe for play. Turf quality
and risk assessment audits will form the basis of such
ground closures.
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