The 260 square metre native rain garden at the intersection of Paul Matthews Road and Omega Street in Albany has been completed and data monitoring to determine its effectiveness in dealing with stormwater will begin in the next few weeks.

Auto-samplers have been installed to collect the data and will enable our project partner, Landcare Research, to compare the quality and volume of stormwater entering and leaving the rain garden.

Devices have been installed to ensure water flows evenly across the garden, which allows water to pond to about 150mm deep, and the plants, with their narrow leaves, are tolerant of being temporarily under water.

As well as determining how well the rain garden works, we will assess the full costs of the rain garden including the energy used to produce and transport the materials during construction, to evaluate how cost-effective it is compared to other stormwater devices.