Water Sensitive Urban Design from Atlantis Corporation

With the introduction of the Atlantis System into mainstream urban development, ecologically sustainable development can be achieved to the expectations of the community and the satisfaction of the developer. The principle behind the Atlantis System is to capture, filter and clean storm water where it falls, encouraging retention and infiltration as opposed to runoff and drainage.

In a typical system installation each house has an infiltration tank installed with around 5,000 litres capacity per site. In a green fields development site the Atlantis Ecological Tanks are installed prior to the construction of the dwellings. The tanks are located under landscaped areas or gardens, which improves the aesthetics of the housing blocks in contrast to traditional above ground concrete detention tanks.

Located around 500 mm from the surface the high load bearing capacity of the Atlantis Ecological Tanks enables large machinery such as D7 bulldozers, which are needed to excavate a new site, to operate unimpeded during earthworks and construction. The ability of the tanks to be accurately installed in low fall situations ensures efficient connection and performance following house construction.

Stormwater run-off from roofs initially passes through an Atlantis Filtration Unit to remove gross and dissolved pollutants and then into the Atlantis Ecological Tank, which further filters the water. The Atlantis Stormwater Re-use Systems and the Atlantis Infiltration Tank System are alternatives that can be applied to green field developments and brown field sites, which then can be re-used and/or allowed to infiltrate into the subsoil. Clean filtered stormwater from the Atlantis system permeates through the subsoils recharging underground aquifers that feed local waterways.

Typical plan view of Atlantis Sub Division Site, showing Atlantis Ecological Road and tank locations

In large storm events an overflow system diverts excess water to an appropriate outlet such as a detention basin. Treated water discharge from Atlantis tanks is clean and consequently does not present a contamination risk. Specific vegetation types that are part of the Atlantis system are used for evapo-transpiration. For example strategic planting of specific tree species can consume up to 3,000 litres of water per day. This reduces absolute reliance on installed water management systems.

In addition to providing an ecological solution the main advantages of the Atlantis systems are that they are modular and able to suit almost every situation whether it be collection, treatment or storage. Because it is a sub surface system it also provides savings to developers by freeing up space otherwise required for sumps and above ground detention tanks.

The Atlantis Ecological Tank Systems provide a best practice system for managing stormwater run-off, collection, re-use, discharge and aquifer recharge that is a model breakthrough for ecologically sustainable and cost effective suburban development.