Rethinking Infrastructure Design - Rethinking Infrastructure Design for Multi-Use Water Services - page 7

Fig. 6 From natural to developed (built) and back to natural principles in surface run-off

comprehensive concepts; and (b) WSUD (Water-Sensitive Urban Design), initially
introduced in Australia (2009) as an extension of SUDS principle, mainly by using
rain gardens and bio

lters to enhance run-off quality so that it can be safely released
into receiving water bodies. WSUD has been successfully implemented in many
small-scale projects in Australia, which made many positive changes, particularly in
Melbourne. The WSUD concept has been recently introduced in the UK with some
new features added to the initial concept of WSUD.
While embracing both SUDS and WSUD, a new concept, with a much broader
framework, termed henceforth MUS is proposed within the MUS paradigm as a
transition from a ' rich man ' s solution ' to ' a wise man ' s solution/culture ' (Fig. 6 ).

4 What Is the Multiple-Use Water Services Concept?

MUS Solutions enhance the synergy of urban blue (urban water infrastructure) and
urban vegetated areas (green assets) by providing multiple bene ts to urban eco-

system services and functions. They encompass the options and interventions
developed within the WSUD (Water-Sensitive Urban Design) concept but go
beyond them (Fig. 7 ).
The key aspects of urban design are to create a place for people, enrich the
existing places and make connections between urban areas. At the same time,
designs have to be economically viable and climate (environmental) adaptive. By
combining well-established principles of urban planning 1 with a growing under-
standing of new technologies and natural principles, urban planners are able to
create better and more secure places for future generations. The key issues creating
the need for MUS solutions are presented in Fig. 8 .
Ecosystem services provide effective, multifunctional support to urban adapta-
tion to future climate changes and variation of climate extremes. During the
planning or designing process, architects/planners have the responsibility to take
into account the following:

1 Principles such as mix of use and users, plenty of public space, combination of wide streets and
mews (inner streets) provide parking spaces that don ' t dominate street view, etc.