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The Environment Agency commissioned Professor Chris Pratt from Coventry University to undertake a review of papers/articles relating to SUDS techniques. The paper provides a review of previous studies and a list of useful references and has been updated for 2004.
DOWNLOAD: Adobe PDF file of 2004 SUDS Research Review
The Environment Agency in consultation with those involved with SUDS have put together a spreadsheet with summary details of SUDS related R&D. If you have any additional projects you would like listed please contact Phil Chatfield from the Environment Agency.
DOWNLOAD: Excel spreadsheet of SUDS Research
CIRIA
HR Wallingford
EPSRC
Defra
Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) are key stakeholders in the sustainable management of flood risk and drainage. This network has been set up to disseminate good practice, research outputs and policy relating to sustainable drainage and flood risk management to planners and operational staff within LPAs.
The network also provides those working within LPAs the opportunity to discuss issues and challenges, share knowledge and new approaches to facilitate the identification of common solutions through events and the online forum. As a result, participants of the network are able to keep abreast of good practice and changes in policy, practices and research.
Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) are being championed by many organisations including the Environment Agency, DEFRA and SEPA as a sustainable alternative to traditional drainage schemes. There are a number of disparate organisations incorporating SUDS and undertaking research on their performance to facilitate the development of guidance and encourage greater uptake of SUDS in developments. CIRIA project RP752 provides up-to-date information on good practice and the use of SUDS ensuring that progress on developing SUDS through research and practical applications is communicated to the construction industry and general public in an independent and objective way.
The project includes this website, a biannual newsletter called Sustainable drainage news and is affiliated with a technical journalist.
Contact Paul Shaffer at CIRIA for further information.
New CIRIA research proposalsProposal 2343 - Sustainable drainage: Guidance for plannersRegulation and policy (e.g. PPS25 Development and flood risk) increasingly require local authority planners to facilitate the sustainable management of surface water and implement sustainable drainage systems (SUDS). The proposed document will complement recent guidance on SUDS, Integrated Urban Drainage Management and the PPS25 Practice Guide to produce a non-technical guidance document for spatial planners, and urban designers. It will aim to provide clarity on the principles of sustainable drainage to assist the inclusion of SUDS and better surface water management in the planning process and ensure successful and appropriate surface water management plans (SWMPs) are specified by planners and implemented by developers |
HR Wallingford managed a DTI and industry funded research project to investigate the economic incentives, social impacts and ecological benefits of SUDS. As part of this research a number of research reports and summaries have been produced (summaries can be downloaded by clicking links below). These include:
For futher information on the full reports please contact the Publications Department at HR Wallingford by calling 01491 835381 or by email.
SUDSnet provides a UK-wide network for researchers, practitioners, agencies, developers and all those who are interested in sustainable drainage.
SUDSnet is funded by an EPSRC Network Grant and is held jointly by Coventry University and the Urban Water Technology Centre at the University of Abertay Dundee.
For further information please go to the SUDSnet website.
AUDACIOUS is a cross-disciplinary project that brings together hydrologists, building drainage and sewerage engineers, health, social and infrastructural economic specialists, to develop tools and procedures for the assessment and mitigation of the effects of climate change on urban drainage systems. The main contribution to knowledge will be in developing an improved understanding of the potential impacts of climate change on the performance of existing building drainage and local drainage systems and the downstream interfacial effects to main drainage. Thence the development of new flexible and adaptable approaches, suitably positioned and integrated. Which, within defined uncertainty and allocated risk and cost burdens, may be used to mitigate the effects as part of the overall hierarchy of responses advocated by government. This will entail the development of methodologies for management, including assessment of perceptions, costs, failure and risk. Outputs will be toolbox based, with tailored products utilising appropriate models, media and forms for various stakeholder groups.
For further information please contact Richard Ashley from the University of Bradford.
The project aims to support the delivery of integrated, sustainable water management for new developments by provision of tools and guidelines for project design, implementation and management.
It consists of six core work packages designed to cover the most important aspects of water management. Three are technically based concerning water supply, storm drainage and wastewater. The goal is to identify key performance and design issues and to quantify the key system, infrastructure and environment interactions. Two other packages deal with aspects concerned with social acceptability of new 'sustainable' technologies, the decision-making process and the place of water management in it, the role of whole-life costing in this context and the potential for increased health risks. The final Work Package pulls together the strands of the issues and techniques raised in the other five to produce a toolbox.
The model will be used to evaluate alternative development and water management scenarios and to propose more sustainable strategies, demonstrated through a number of case studies.
If you would like further information, or you have case studies you would like to suggest for use in the project please contact Professor David Butler from Imperial College London.
There has been a considerable amount of research that defines and characterises urban form, and which forms may most affect sustainability. It is a complex issue.
The physical dimensions of urban form may include its size, shape, land uses, configuration and distribution of open space - a composite of a multitude of characteristics, including the transportation system and urban design features. However, its sustainability depends on more abstract issues - environmental, social and economic. The most recent research is now suggesting that, not one, but a number of urban forms may be sustainable. Yet, much of the debate about the sustainability of urban forms has focused on increasing the density of development, ensuring a mix of uses, containing urban 'sprawl' and achieving social and economic diversity and vitality - characterised as the concept of a 'compact city'.
Thus in the UK, reinforced by the Urban White Paper, a dominant paradigm is being implemented in many towns and cities. It is for more compact, high-density and mixed use urban forms, and the belief is that they will be sustainable. However, many of the claims that have been made for such compact forms in terms of sustainability benefits are contested, and few have been rigorously researched. SUFC aims are to take this type of urban form as its starting point, and to test the claims made for it. In order to make progress, it is necessary to measure and characterise urban form so it can be related to environmental, social and economic sustainability, and to make comparisons between different urban forms. SUFC will concentrate on the physical design of urban form with respect to: physical configuration and layout, including links to the wider urban system; its land uses and functions; the typology and density of built form and presence of open space.
The ultimate goal of this research programme is to advance theory on sustainable urban form through systematic evidence-based research, and to provide practical and useful outcomes from it.
For further information on the project please contact Professor Jenks.
The Infrastructure and Environment Programme, in collaboration with the Defra/Environment Agency Joint R&D Programme on Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Scottish Executive and UK Water Industry Research, has provided more than £5 million to establish and support the work of the Flood-Risk Management Research Consortium (FRMRC).
As a part academic/part industrial consortium, the FRMRC will deliver tools and guidance useful to flooding practitioners in the short term, as well as strengthening the UK science and engineering base in flood research for the longer term. The consortium consists of more than twenty research groups from academia and industry, and is led jointly by Heriot-Watt and Bristol Universities.
Further information can be found on the Flood-Risk Management Research Counsortium website.
Making space for water has identified a strong need for an holistic, joined-up, and integrated approach to deal with the problems of flooding. This is especially the case in urban areas where there is currently a complex interaction of drainage systems and a widespread difficulty in identifying ownership of the problem. This project aims to use pilot studies to identify effective ways for partnerships to manage surface water flooding in high risk urban areas through an integrated drainage approach.
15 pilot projects have been set up to examine a range of different approaches to develop more integrated urban drainage management. An initial scoping review (see below under Project outputs to date) has been carried out to review ongoing best practice and to identify current projects that are relevant to the pilots or should be considered in developing future guidance
For further information on the project please click here
If you have any research projects you would like mentioned on the site please contact us.
(May 2007)