Sustainable drainage management

At an ever increasing rate, water run off in urban sprawls is becoming a more important a concern for water management interests. Managing this resource however, has had little focus until recently, and in order to do so effectively, best practice methods need to be assessed. An EC funded project DAYWATER investigates, amongst other concerns, the feasibility of identifying best practice from systems currently in place.

Climate Change and Environment

Sustainable drainage isn't exactly a common term. It is perhaps known only within water management bodies with a vested interest in providing water solutions within urban areas and catchment regions. As a major issue, concerns such as flow control, pollution removal, water quality and amenity have been assessed in order to obtain a better understanding of best management practices. Flexibility is the key in developing such practices. This is because the drainage systems of the various stakeholders are all prone to a degree of uncertainty. This is related directly to the influence of the political, environmental, organisational, and even technical bodies concerned. Both long term operation and cost effectiveness will need to be included. Other factors of prime importance relating to sustainability such as the environmental/ecological impact, health and safety, operation and maintenance as well as suitable design and construction of such systems were investigated. These factors became part of a report detailing a comprehensive range of criteria and indicators for benchmarking purposes. However, because of the complexity involved, the criteria were segregated into primary (those generic to all) and secondary - but both cover all aspects relevant to European conditions.