Product info

As an aid to decision-making, MUSIC predicts the performance of stormwater quality management systems. It is intended to help organisations plan and design (at a conceptual level) appropriate urban stormwater management systems for their catchments.

MUSIC is an easy to use modelling tool for both simple and highly complex urban stormwater systems using water sensitive urban design.  It can simulate urban stormwater systems ranging from a suburban block up to a whole suburb or town (0.01 km2 to 100km2). The time scale can start at 6 minutes and stretch up to 24 hours. 

What's new in v5.1 

MUSIC v5.1 has improved performance speed and makes complex modelling even easier with new split-flows functionality. 'Split-flows' allows for the flow to be broken into its component parts such as low and high flow bypass, weir overflow, pipe, infiltration and reuse.
 
Examples:

Stormwater harvesting
Direct individual flow components to or from treatment devices to allow for better modelling of stormwater harvesting or reuse scenarios.

Treatment systems
Setting up a staged treatment system where a high-flow bypass is directed into a different treatment device than the low flow has been made a much simpler task.  Users can direct individual flow components both into and out of a treatment device to design the best treatment system for their conditions.
 
Groundwater
Groundwater considerations can be modelled more robustly with the split flows functionality. Surface flows can be directed on a different flow paths to the infiltrated component of the flow.  Infiltration can be directed more easily based on site conditions and this will allow for more accurate modelling within sandy soil and groundwater conditions.

View all version update details

Version 5

This version represented a step change in stormwater modelling capability. 

The new features in MUSIC v5 included capacity to:

• examine water quality outcomes pre and post development
• model alternative pollutants for better assessment of water quality outcomes
• link stormwater quality and flooding management initiatives using the new detention basin node
• import spatially aware background images and lock your music design to them
• multi-node edit, for more efficient comparison of node setup and design
• import and export from other modelling tools with ease
• apply more rainfall data types with the new data ingestion tool
• improve reporting and charting
• apply more refined bioretention science
• simulate rainwater and stormwater harvesting options
  
• examine all inputs and outputs (water balance) at any point in the model so you can see exactly where infiltration, overflows and bypasses are occurring
  
• determine the cost-effectiveness of scenarios (life cycle costing)
  
• access the eWater stormwater product listing service (sponsored listing)

MUSIC and WSUD

Designing urban development proposals that meet Water Sensitive Urban Design Standards has been made easier with the release of the new version of the urban stormwater software, MUSIC v5.1. 

From governments to catchment management groups, many organisations have introduced initiatives to protect the aquatic environment of urban areas. While the initial focus was on point sources of pollution, such as sewage discharge and industrial effluent, attention has now turned to diffuse sources of pollution, such as urban stormwater. Indeed, stormwater runoff is recognised as a major carrier of urban pollutants.

It is difficult to prevent stormwater from damaging and polluting creeks because runoff can be contaminated almost anywhere rain falls, and excessive flows will occur wherever there are impervious surfaces directly connected to waterways. Consequently, successful initiatives to manage stormwater must adopt a catchment-wide approach, with a particular focus on tackling the sources of stormwater runoff at or near their source. The diffuse sources of stormwater pollution also demand a multi-disciplinary approach. Successful initiatives may need to integrate a range of urban planning and design disciplines, including urban hydrology, land-use planning, landscape design and asset life-cycle economics.

MUSIC can model a wide range of treatment devices to find the best way to capture and resuse stormwater runoff, remove its contaminants, and reduce the frequency of runoff. MUSIC helps you to evaluate these treatment devices until the best combination of cost, hydrology and water quality improvement is achieved.

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 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
• Version 4 provided more powerful modelling of bioretention and inflitation systems, as well as simpler calibration tools and improved support.
• MUSIC version 5 offers significant new capabilities, including the ability to: model additional pollutants; assess development submissions; understand peak flow impacts, the effects of storage and detention treatments and the water balance; simulate rainwater and stormwater harvesting options and import and export to other models. With music version 5 you'll also find an enhanced user interface and improved capacity to report and chart results.

Since MUSIC was first developed in 2001, the software has been used by thousands of professionals working in private practice and in state, regional and local government agencies throughout Australia.

With rigorous testing by hundreds of users, the feedback we have received about MUSIC has been used to expand its capabilties and make it more robust and reliable.

Find out more about the team behind MUSIC.

MUSIC team

Licensing & Pricing

Standard licences

Please note: these licences are only able to be used on the computer where the licence is first activated. The licence can only be transferred to another computer by contacting the eWater Support line on 1300-5-WATER (1300 592 837).

USB Dongle

* Notes:

• Prices subject to change
• Prices are for Australian market only. Please contact us for international prices
• Paid Support and Maintenance is compulsory for all first year purchases of MUSIC
  

 System requirements

End-user licence agreement MUSIC v5

Case studies

Since MUSIC was first developed in 2001, the software has been used by thousands of urban stormwater professionals working in private practice and in state, regional and local government agencies throughout Australia.

MUSIC guidelines have been, or are being, written for a range of locations across Australia, including Melbourne, Sydney’s drinking water catchments, South East Queensland, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Mackay, Perth and Darwin. Environmental and engineering consultants around Australia use MUSIC every day to design urban development proposals that meet Water Sensitive Urban Design standards. MUSIC is even being used to look at the effects of wetlands in agricultural catchments near the Great Barrier Reef.

MUSIC case studies

Videos on MUSIC

Who's using MUSIC?

Support options

Paid Support and Maintenance

Our paid Support and Maintenance package provides a number of benefits including:

• Telephone support (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm AEST)
  
• Access to future updates and upgrades at no additional cost - allowing you to have access to the most up-to-date version.
• An additional 1600 Australia Government Bureau of Meteorology pluviograph rainfall data sets
  
• Access to MUSIC specialists for assistance on how to apply MUSIC to water sensitive urban design issues
• Additional support and tips documentation
• Dedicated forums
• All Standard Support options

Standard Support

Is available to all licences. It provides access to:

• Community site http://toolkit.ewater.com.au and email eGroup forums
• Online frequently asked questions and answers
• Telephone support through the 1300-5-WATER line for installation, licence and bug reporting only.

System requirements

MUSIC FAQ

Training

Special Offers

• Purchase eWater software when booking training to receive a 20% discount on the cost of the software.

Training currently includes:

• Stormwater modelling using MUSIC (two days, introduction and intermediate music)
• Customised training Stormwater modelling using MUSIC
• Development Assessment of WSUD using MUSIC

Visit our MUSIC training page to find out more.

Training info and pricing