THG

Life Cycle Modelling for Stormwater Treatment

The Logan City Council were looking for ways to encourage developers to be more environmentally conscious when they approached THG to develop a Life Cycle Cost Model for overland flow channels.

Looking at natural and low flow channels, swales and bioretention swales, THG assessed the treatment capacities and developed a model that could predict the construction, maintenance and decommission costs over a period of 40-50 years.

The result was a Life Cycle Cost Model indicating that natural channels are cheaper than cement versions, depending upon the length of the channel. These results helped to demonstrate to developers that environmental awareness can have an economic benefit.

Council now has an in-house spreadsheet model to assess the estimated life cycle costs for overland flow channels that is used when considering development applications.