Mr Justin Lewis

Contact Information:

Links:

• Facility for Advancing Water Biofiltration (FAWB)
• The Institute for Sustainable Water Resources (ISWR)
• Melbourne Water
• Victorian EPA
• Moreland City Council
• eWater CRC
• Melbourne City Council

Qualifications:

Research:

Research areas

• Stormwater treatment technologies
• Water Sensitive Urban Design
• Evaluation of Stormwater Education Programs
• Modelling Urban Stormwater Quality
• Stormwater harvesting and reuse

Research Projects

1. Facility for Advancing Water Biofiltration(FAWB)

   A key goal of FAWB's research is to develop biofiltration technologies that provide effective and sustainable treatment of stormwater. A combination of laboratory experiments and field trials of bioretention systems are being used to test the influence of design configurations and operating conditions, and to demonstrate their full-scale applications.

   Laboratory Trials
   Laboratory studies are being undertaken to determine the optimum design configuration (vegetation, media, outlet specifications) and operating conditions for achieving long-term, sustainable pollutant removal.

   Field Trials will be undertaken in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to:

   • Validate laboratory studies and address site specific issues
   • Provide demonstrations of biofilters in a range of urban environments (streetscapes, greenfields, inner-city retrofits, etc)
   • To provide the basis for monitoring of long term robustness under real operating conditions
   • Document construction procedures, for use in guidelines and standard drawings

   Bioretention for stormwater harvesting (Melbourne)
   A bioretention system has been constructed to treat stormwater runoff from a car park, prior to its discharge to a pond. This system has been designed as three separate cells allowing field-scale trials of biofilter media (including additives), hydraulic loadings

   Bioretention system in sodic soil environment (Sydney)
   The application of bioretention systems in sodic soil environments requires particular attention to be paid to prevent any increase in discharge to groundwater and leaching of saline water into receiving waters.
   Field trials are to be undertaken to investigate if special construction techniques need to be adopted in constructing bioretention systems in sodic soil environments.

   Large-scale bioretention system (Brisbane)
   This regional-scale bioretention systems treats stormwater runoff from an 87ha residential catchment. The system has been designed with three hydraulically separate filtration cells, each with a slightly different sub-surface drainage configuration and vegetation specification thus providing a unique monitoring opportunity. Specifically, this trial will examine the effectiveness of an anaerobic zone for removal of nitrogen from urban stormwater.

2. Quantifying Stormwater Recycling Risks and Benefits (Smartwater Grant)

   This project will evaluate the performance of three integrated stormwater recycling systems located within Melbourne, at Royal Park, Altona Green and the Clayton campus of Monash University. This research will provide crucial knowledge about the actual water harvesting performance of urban stormwater recycling systems (runoff from paved and unpaved urban areas), the level of pathogens and other water contaminants moving through the system

3. Vic EPA Modelling Urban Stormwater Quality.

   This urban stormwater monitoring project involves collecting data on stormwater quality from a range of different land use types across Melbourne. The aim of the project is to derive reliable measurements of water quality (e.g. derive Dry Weather Concentration (DWC) and Event Mean Concentration (EMC) values) for a variety of stormwater pollutants and land uses within catchments in the Melbourne metropolitan area. The monitoring will be conducted in stormwater pipes at the point of outflow to receiving waterways during both storm flow and base flow. The data will be used to build tools to help stormwater managers predict pollutant loads from catchments, depending on land use.

4. Predicting the performance of biofiltration systems.

   CRC for Catchment Hydrology project. Dosing experiments on two types of biofiltration systems at Lynbrook Estate.

5. Snell Grove: Evaluation of Stormwater Education Programs

   This project focuses on the performance of an education/participation campaign to reduce the loads of litter in stormwater within a small commercial district around Snell Grove in Oak Park, Melbourne.

Publications:

• Lewis, J.F., Hatt,B.E., Deletic,A., & Fletcher,T.D.,(2008) The impact of vegetation on the hydraulic conductivity of stormwater biofiltration systems
• Davies, C.M, Mitchell, V.G., Petterson,S.M., Taylor, G.D., Lewis, J.F., Kaucner, C. & Ashbolt,N.J (2008) Microbial challenge-testing of treatment processes for quantifying stormwater recycling risks and management. Water Science and Technology 57 (6) 843-847
• Petterson S.R., Davies, C.M., Ashbolt, N.J., Mitchell, V.G., Lewis, J.F. Taylor, G.D.(2007) Quantifying microbial health risks for non-potable reuse of stormwater
• Hatt B.E., Lewis,J.F., Fletcher ,T.D., Deletic,A.(2007) Insights from the Design, Construction and Operation of an Experimental Biofiltration System.
• Lewis, J.F (2006) Developing Reliable Models of Pollutant Loads. (Technical Report), Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology, Melbourne.
• Lewis,J.F.,Taylor,A & Fletcher,T.D.(2005) An Analysis of the Effect of a Commercial Area Education Campaign on Litter Loads.
• Taylor,A.,Fletcher,T.D.& Lewis,J.F. (2005) Monitoring and Evaluating an Education/Participation Campaign to Reduce Littering and Stormwater Litter Loads in a Small Commercial Shopping District in Melbourne.
• Lewis,J.F.(2002) Effectiveness of Stormwater Litter Traps for Syringe and Litter Removal Melbourne Water Corporation.
• Lewis,J.F. (2002, July 2002) Assesing the Performance of Gross Pollutant Traps. Catchword,pp.10-11

Short Resume: