Heritage & credits

Development of music

music – model for urban stormwater improvement conceptualisation – was first developed in 2001.

Research by Dr Tony Wong and colleagues at Monash University and eWater’s forerunner organisation, the CRC for Catchment Hydrology identified that urban water professionals needed a decision support system to evaluate treatment measures and strategies if urban stormwater quality was to be improved.

Fundamental to this was research that showed that treatment of nearly all urban stormwater systems could be simulated using one model, the ‘universal stormwater treatment model’. This breakthrough, combined with a detailed understanding of the hydrology and pollutants of urban areas, gave Dr Wong’s team the necessary building blocks that became music.

The music development team focused on having a tool that, though easy to use, was underlain by high quality science. Dr Wong recognised that the science of estimating water quality had tended to become event-based and deterministic, whereas the quality of urban stormwater really depends on the statistical outcome of many rainfall events interacting with a handful of physical and chemical processes. If this ‘actuarial approach’ could be captured with an appropriate algorithm, calculations would be much simplified.

The hydrology inside music, developed by Francis Chiew and colleagues in the CRC for Catchment Hydrology, is based on defining an impervious area and the properties of related pervious areas. Once this is done, the runoff from an area can be estimated. More and more, confident estimates of hydrology are becoming as important as estimating water quality. In fact, changes in urban hydrology can have major impacts on the health of creeks and streams, as work by Associate Professor Tim Fletcher (a member of the music development team) and colleagues at Monash University has shown.

Taking music from strength to strength

music v4 is supported by eWater and is strongly grounded in proven Australian science and user experience to reduce the uncertainty surrounding stormwater management strategies.

Version 2 extended the features and provided export options
Version 3 introduced life-cycle costing, rainwater tanks and infiltration basins
Now Version 4 provides more powerful modeling of bioretention and inflitation systems, the flexibility to model heavy metals and other pollutants, as well as simpler calibration tools.

music has been rigorously tested by hundreds of users and the feedback received has made it better, more robust and reliable.

The team behind music

	Professor Tony Wong Professor Tony Wong is a Principal with Design + Planning at AECOM, with over 25 years' experience in water resources management in both rural and urban environments. His recent focus has been on the water aspects of ecologically sustainable development, particularly integrated urban water cycle management and water sensitive urban design. His expertise has been gained through consulting, research, and academia, and he has received a number of industry awards for the projects he has led. Tony has co-authored a number of book chapters for UNESCO and was the editor-in-chief of Engineers Australia’s Australian Runoff Quality: A Guide to Water Sensitive Urban Design. He is currently a member of the Commonwealth Government’s National Water Commission Urban Water Advisory Group, and in 2007 served in the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council’s working group on water for cities. In 2008, Tony was appointed Honorary Professor at Monash University for his ongoing leadership in research.
	Professor Ana Deletic Ana Deletic is Professor in Water Engineering at Monash University. She is the Research Manager of the Facility for Advancing Water Biofiltration (FAWB) that recently developed stormwater bioretention technologies. Ana’s current projects include monitoring and modelling of stormwater systems, assessing uncertainties in urban water models, and development of stormwater harvesting technologies. Ana has been involved in the design, construction and monitoring of a range of innovative stormwater management systems throughout Australia and the UK. She is associate editor of Water Research and Water Science and Technology that are leading journals in the field.
	Associate Professor Tim Fletcher Associate Professor Tim Fletcher is Director of the Institute for Sustainable Water Resources at Monash University, and is internationally recognised for his expertise in stormwater quality, treatment and impacts, having written over 170 publications on the topic. His research focus has included modelling stormwater flows, quality and the performance of stormwater treatment systems, and ecosystem response to stormwater management. Tim has contributed to the development of stormwater guidelines in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania and regularly serves as an independent reviewer of stormwater management programs.
	Hugh Duncan Hugh Duncan is a Research Fellow employed by Melbourne Water, an eWater partner. He is an Associate of the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University and contributes to the research of the eWater (Monash Node). Hugh has a broad research interest in a wide range of urban water issues. He has worked with Associate Professor Tim Fletcher on the refinement and validation of algorithms for music v4.
	Tony Weber Tony Weber is National Practice Leader - Water Quality for BMT WBM. Since joining WBM, Tony has worked on a large range of water quality related projects, including water sensitive urban design, integrated water management, water quality and stormwater management projects, including WSUD conceptual and detailed design, urban lake management, strategic policy and planning, catchment modelling and water quality monitoring. Tony has a degree in chemistry from Queensland University of Technology and has worked in the water industry (including water supply and laboratory analysis, stormwater management and strategic urban water management) for over 20 years. Tony has been involved with the testing and development of MUSIC since its inception. Involvement with the ongoing development of MUSIC continues as well as being the lead MUSIC Trainer for eWater. Tony is also a Visiting Fellow for the Integrated Catchment Assessment and Management Centre at Australian National University (ANU).
	Coding Team
	Dr Chris Ryan Dr Chris Ryan is the Managing Director of Catchment Simulation Solutions, a consultant to key water resource organisations including the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and the National Water Commission and eWater CRC. He has more than ten years experience in water resource modelling within Australia and overseas, with a PhD specialising in integration of engineering models within GIS environments. He has worked with a wide range of hydrologic and hydraulic models, GIS platforms, object-orientated software languages and web development technologies in the USA, India, Botswana, Ethiopia, Middle East and Australia.
	Frank Yan Frank Yan has extensive experience in software development, particularly in the area of Windows applications development including programming of graphics, network communication and MPEG video decoding. Frank joined eWater in January 2009 and is working on hydrological model and water quality treatment programming. He previously worked for Panasonic in Singapore where he was involved in image processing research projects including human/vehicle recognition using machine learning techniques and algorithm development.
	David Tetley David is a civil engineer with Catchment Simulation Solutions and has eight years experience in hydrologic, hydraulic and water quality modelling, engineering programming and application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in water resources projects in Australia and the United States. David has considerable experience in a broad range of hydrologic, hydraulic, water quality and GIS software.
	Additional Development Support
	Dr Matthew Hardy Matt is an Environmental Engineer with BMT WBM’s Victorian Water and Environment Group. He is also a Program Leader for eWater’s Urban Program. Matt has a Doctor of Philosophy from Newcastle University and completed his research thesis in the field of Integrated Urban Water Management. Matt has been involved a number of urban hydrology related projects including catchment water quality modelling for the Better Bays and Water Ways Program, the development of stormwater management strategies for a number of residential developments across Australia, and the review of a number of local government stormwater management plans across Victoria.
	Dale Browne Dale Browne has been involved in stormwater management for the past eight years. He works for AECOM and has been involved with projects including WSUD strategies for Victoria Harbour and Dubai Waterfront and an integrated water management strategy for the City of Port Phillip. He is also completing a PhD part-time at Monash University, researching the design and modelling of stormwater infiltration systems. Dale has delivered music training for the past six years.