Agricultural risk management of a peri-urban water recycling scheme to meet mixed land-use needs

The use of recycled water as a valued resource is becoming well established worldwide as a means to support agricultural irrigation. This paper describes a case study of agricultural use of recycled water and associated mixed land-use needs in a peri-urban setting of northwest Sydney. The Hawkesbury campus of Western Sydney University has an established water recycling scheme to support both agricultural productivity and landscape amenity, along with increasing linkages to infrastructure protection from bush fire risk. Risk management strategies are described for a range of land use needs across the campus, and discussed in terms of supporting local resilience, activities of the range of communities of practice involved, and ecosystem services from the local peri-urban landscape. Conclusions are drawn in terms of risk management of agricultural water recycling as an integrative process for managing associated land use needs.