Aura, the city of colour – Australia's shining example of widescale integrated water cycle management

Aura, the ‘City of Colour’, is a 48,000 person masterplanned community on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Aura commenced construction in 2015 and will be developed over the next 25 years. Aura sets a benchmark in Australia regarding large scale urban water sustainability through the application of techniques such as rainwater capture and reuse, construction and operational stormwater treatment, water conservation, advanced sewer system designs and potentially a major stormwater harvesting and indirect potable reuse scheme. This paper outlines the journey taken in seeing Aura advance from ‘concept’ to ‘reality’, describes data collection undertaken and modelling tools applied and outlines activities being implemented at Aura to protect sensitive downstream environments and simultaneously deliver water cycle and project sustainability benefits.