Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) are appearing all over the UK to help manage the water in and around our urban areas. They help to reduce flood risk by trying to store the water where it lands, rather than allowing it to enter into the drainage systems too quickly, which can overwhelm them.
Dr Alexander Osborne is a Knowledge Exchange Fellow in Floods and SuDS at the University of Hull. In this blog post, he introduces the exciting things that are being actively researched with SuDS.
With climate change leading to more intense rainfall and the prospect of more frequent flooding, finding innovative ways to make urban areas sustainable has never been more important. As nature based solutions, they try to mimic the natural way in which water is usually stored and released on the land. They aim to enhance four main criteria:
- reduction in water quantity
- improvements to water quality
- increased biodiversity
- and enhanced amenity value.
SuDSlab is a project looking at understanding, evaluating, optimising and engaging with various stakeholders and communities. This has involved collaborations with the Doncaster, Immingham and Grimsby (DIG) Surface Water Resilience Project and with Living With Water.
DIG Surface Water Resilience Project
As part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCIP), which is funded by Defra and managed by the Environment Agency, DIG is a partnership between local authorities (City of Doncaster and North East Lincolnshire) and water companies (Anglian Water and Yorkshire Water).
As part of SuDSlab we deliver innovation in surface water resilience. At the midpoint of the programme, we've established school weather stations, monitored detention ponds, planters, rain gardens, and tree pits. We are also developing new monitoring strategies to address water quality issues using optically driven sensors and to enable smarter SuDS. Further work is exploring how SuDS can mitigate the urban heat island effect through a distributed network of surface temperature probes.
All the data is now being shared in real-time at www.SuDSlab.co.uk which is our data portal that anyone can access and see how SuDS are behaving in their area.
We are excited to continue working on how monitoring data can be shared and developed for community engagement through the spinoff ‘Water Data for People’ project, which includes educational resources and public notice boards.
The development of our dedicated PuddleWatch app aims to help show how people view and interact with water, furthering our understanding of water issues in communities. Further work will soon start in new areas of the project, with research outputs aimed at exploring relationships between SuDS, people, and the wider environment.
Building on our success with the DIG project, our collaboration with Living With Water (LWW) continues to focus on integrating SuDS solutions at a community level in Hull and beyond. We are undertaking research around blue-green infrastructure to support the sustainable vision of the area.
LWW is a partnership that was made to understand the risk of flooding and build flood resilience in the Hull and East Riding area. It is a partnership between Yorkshire Water, Hull City Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, the Environment Agency and the University of Hull – all of which play a role in managing water in Hull and the East Riding. The focus is on creating sustainable, long-term solutions that not only manage water effectively but also enhance the quality of life for those living in flood-prone areas.
We work closely on designing pilot research projects to answer questions around the best practice of installing SuDS and how they perform afterwards. A standout success is the Bilton Primary School SuDS scheme which has created ponds that take runoff from a carpark, swales and tree pits that soak up playground water in order to reduce the risk of flooding. With around 200 active sensor measurements in the school, we aim to have a better understanding of how SuDS are achieving reductions in water quantity and improvements in water quality.
SuDS are also being constructed in the heart of communities like Derringham in Hull, which was badly impacted by the 2007 flood. LWW are working with community groups, residents and key stakeholders to understand more about how communities use the green spaces in Derringham, and how they could provide a surface water flood risk solution during peak rain events. SuDSlab is monitoring new SuDS, like these large aquagreens, and improving understanding of how water behaves before, during and after high rainfall.
Flood Action Week
With Flood Action Week, it is crucial to highlight the collective efforts being made to raise awareness around urban flood management. This annual event serves as a reminder of the increasing challenges posed by climate change and the need for innovative solutions to manage the risks associated with extreme weather.
The SuDSlab at the University of Hull’s Energy and Environment Institute, combined with the efforts of the DIG project and the Living with Water partnership, are at the forefront of understanding Sustainable Drainage Solutions. Together, these projects are examining how we manage water in our cities, using real-time data, community engagement, and innovative technology to create resilient systems that protect both people and the environment. By turning our focus towards nature-based solutions like SuDS, we're not only reducing flood risks but also creating greener, more vibrant urban spaces.