Research by topic: Sustainable water management

Projects underway

susdrain is an exciting community that provides up to date guidance, support case studies and photos as well as discussion forums and networking opportunities.

Delivering successful integrated water management through the planning system

This project will produce guidance which supports the delivery of effective integrated water management (that include SuDS) for new development and regeneration projects. It will review and showcase good planning policies and the process that underpi

Code of Practice and guidance for property flood resilience

Updated guidance on SuDS construction will ensure SuDS are built as designed and provide the functionality and performance required.

The benefits of SuDS (BeST)

CIRIA has developed a new, free tool and guidance, BeST (Benefits of SuDS Tool, W045) for use on PC.

Project proposals

P2970 - Guidance on natural flood management

This project will produce guidance which builds on existing case studies, high-level guidance and research (eg SEPA’s handbook, Environment Agency and NERC research) to present case studies, develop a design philosophy, design objectives and criteria

P2866 - Guidance on the inspection and maintenance of SuDS

This project will assess the need for repackaging and representing guidance.

P3140 - susdrain 2018 - 2020

The current phase of the susdrain project (website www.susdrain.org and seminars) finishes in September 2018. susdrain provides a platform to share experiences and good practice on SuDS delivery. susdrain is regarded by the UK industry as the most re

P3083 - Resource pack to improve SuDS construction

CIRIA’s guidance on SuDS construction will be produced in the spring of 2017. It will be a guidance document, with an accompanying presentation that can be freely downloaded. Market research will be undertaken to inform the format of the resource pac

P3085 - Guidance on cost effective SuDS delivery

This project will create guidance expanding on the SuDS Manual, collating case studies and disparate research on costs to provide advice on practical approaches to improve the cost effectiveness of SuDS.

P3043 - Scoping study on innovative funding and financing for Integrated Water Management

This project will scope out and provide guidance on national and international approaches that might support UK IWM delivery by different stakeholders (including organisations, individuals and the community).

P3084 - Guidance on the delivery of blue roofs

This proposal sets out to develop guidance on blue roofs and the delivery of multiple benefits to improve confidence in their specification, design and delivery.

P3137 - Making B£ST better - improving functionality

This proposal sets out to develop guidance on blue roofs and the delivery of multiple benefits to improve confidence in their specification, design and delivery.

P3139 - Development of a consistent SuDS monitoring specification

Following a literature review and engagement with researchers this project will develop a specification for monitoring all SuDS components that provides baseline parameters and characteristics (primarily for hydraulic and water quality performance) t

P3138 - Presenting the evidence base on SuDS performance

This project will collate previous literature reviews, information summarised as part of the SuDS Manual update (2015), and where relevant review other international databases as well as undertake engagement with UK universities to obtain relevant pe

P2802 - Accreditation and/or assessment of SuDS – scoping

This project will explore the potential and methodology for an accreditation and/or assessment scheme to asses SuDS designs and designers supporting both the approval process and the delivery of high quality multi-beneficial SuDS.

P3142 - SuDS adoption hierarchy and framework

This project will build on the SuDS Adoption and maintenance options (2015) fact sheet developed for susdrain by Arup. The guidance will explain current approaches for SuDS adoption, include case studies, provide some critical success factors in maki