Assessing Urban Lake Performance for Stormwater Harvesting: Insights from Two Lake Systems in Western Sydney, Australia

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This study examines the impact of catchment characteristics and design on the performance of urban lakes in terms of water quality and stormwater harvesting potential. Two urban lake systems in Western Sydney, Australia, were selected for comparison: Wattle Grove Lake, a standalone constructed lake, and Woodcroft Lake, part of an integrated wetland-lake system. Both systems receive runoff from surrounding residential catchments of differing sizes and land uses. Over a one-year period, continuous monitoring was conducted to evaluate water quality parameters, including turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), nutrients (total nitrogen and total phosphorus), pH, dissolved oxygen, and biochemical oxygen demand. The results reveal that the lake with an integrated wetland significantly outperformed the standalone lake in terms of water quality, particularly in terms of turbidity and total suspended solids (TSS). The wetland acted as an effective pre-treatment system, reducing pollutant loads before water entered the lake. Despite this, nutrient concentrations in both systems remained above the thresholds set by ANZECC Guidelines (2000), indicating persistent challenges in nutrient retention. Notably, the larger catchment area and shallow depth of Wattle Grove Lake likely contributed to higher turbidity and nutrient levels, resulting from sediment resuspension and algal growth. Hydrological modelling using the MUSIC software complemented the field data and highlighted the influence of catchment size, hydraulic retention time, and lake depth on pollutant removal efficiency. While both systems serve important environmental and recreational functions, the integrated wetland-lake system at Woodcroft demonstrated greater potential for safe stormwater harvesting and reuse within urban settings. This data set contains all the raw data collected for this project and presented in tabular format.