Sustainable Surface Water Management

A Handbook for SUDS

Susanne M. Charlesworth, Colin A. Booth, Susanne M. Charlesworth, Colin A. Booth

• Editorial: Wiley-Blackwell
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781118897683
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Categoría: Gestión medioambiental

Sustainable Surface Water Management: a handbook for SUDS addresses issues as diverse as flooding, water quality, amenity and biodiversity but also mitigation of, and adaptation to, global climate change, human health benefits and reduction in energy use. Chapters are included to cover issues from around the world, but they also address particular designs associated with the implementation of SUDS in tropical areas, problems with retrofitting SUDS devices, SUDS modelling, water harvesting in drought-stricken countries using SUDS and the inclusion of SUDS in the climate change strategies of such cities as Tokyo, New York and Strasbourg.

Section 1
Introduction to the Book

1
An Overture of Sustainable Surface Water Management

Colin A. Booth and Susanne M. Charlesworth

1.1 Introduction

With more than 80% of the global population living on land that is prone to flooding, the devastation and disruption that flooding can cause will undoubtedly worsen with climate change (Lamond et al., 2011). The built environment has become more susceptible to flooding because urbanisation has meant that landscapes, which were once porous and allowed surface water to infiltrate, have been stripped of vegetation and soil and have been covered with impermeable roads, pavements and buildings, as shown in Figure 1.1 (Booth and Charlesworth, 2014).

Figure 1.1 An example of a flooded car park where the impermeable asphalt surface is retaining stormwater runoff.

Surface water policy, to address flooding‐related issues, differs widely across various regions and countries. For instance, in the UK, which is made up of four individual countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), Scotland has policies that have enabled sustainable drainage to be implemented as a surface water management strategy for about the past 20 years; whereas, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have yet to completely embrace sustainable drainage devices in their planning policies and guidance, and hence it is not yet widely implemented (Charlesworth, 2010).

1.2 Surface Water Management

The Victorians (1837–1901 in Britain) undoubtedly made remarkable strides towards innovative approaches to the water resource challenges of their day. Facing the dual contests of addressing rapid population expansion and industrial urbanisation, a need developed for high capacity systems to deal with societal water supply and treatment. Comparable approaches were exported or developed independently across the globe, as other nations faced similar challenges. In the UK, by a combination of philanthropy, public subscription and corporate vision, the infrastructure that would provide the vastly increased urban areas with sufficient clean water and the ability to discharge the surplus was put in place; and with it came the notion of the management of water as a single problem with one overarching solution: the provision of drains. However, while the solutions created by the Victorian engineers were magnificent in their day, the legacy of putting water underground seems to have created a collective mental block for many (Watkins and Charlesworth, 2014).

Nowadays, as mentioned earlier, urbanisation has had a transforming effect on the water cycle, whereby hard infrastructure (e.g. buildings, paving, roads) has effectively sealed the urbanised area (Davies and Charlesworth, 2014). As a consequence, excessive surface water runoff now exacerbates river water levels and overloads the capacity of traditional underground ‘piped’ drainage systems; this in turn contributes to unnecessary pluvial flooding. To many people, the solution is simply to replace the existing pipes with higher capacity ones. However, as Water UK (2008) states, bigger pipes are not the solution for bigger storms. Therefore, society should be encouraged to look towards more sustainable solutions.

1.3 Sustainable Surface Water Management

‘Sustainable drainage’ means managing rainwater (including snow and other precipitation) with the aim of: (a) reducing damage from flooding; (b) improving water quality; (c) protecting and improving the environment; (d) protecting health and safety; and (e) ensuring the stability and durability of drainage systems (Flood and Water Management Act, 2010).

Based on an understanding of the movement of water in the natural environment, sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) can be designed to restore or mimic natural infiltration patterns, so that they can reduce the risk of urban flooding by decreasing runoff volumes and attenuating peak flows. The choice of phrase or term that is applied to describe the ...