Practical and Sustainable Surface Water Management

This presentation focuses on the future of surface water management, where climate change, urbanisation, population growth and water scarcity are the key drivers for change and underline the importance of SuDS.  

We look at the desirable attributes of SuDS in the form of infiltration, evaporation and evapotranspiration and, why maintenance is a crucial factor to consider when implementing a SuDS feature.  

For any design, there are three ideal solution attributes; economic construction, the concept of ‘resilience’ in design and sustainability. Delivering these attributes is a challenge that all designers face and will be vital to maintaining a competitive advantage as the industry evolves.  

We consider managing runoff, using both soft and hard solutions to deliver an optimised scheme, taking advantage of site topography and features of the local environment.  

As members and sponsors of the new CIRIA Suds manual (C753), we explore how to instigate design features that enable compliance with Government guidance while delivering value-added benefits to the client and community. 

Learning outcomes: 

• Learn the history, evolution and drivers of SuDS  
• Understand the fundamental principles of a SuDS design 
• Where to access legislation and guidance in the field of SuDS design  
• Understand the balance between economics, resilience and sustainability 
• Learn about government standards for water quantity 
• How The SuDS Manual (C753) designs for rate and volume control  
• Learn about rate management and interception losses using surface storage and green SuDS 
• Understand pollution levels and the important of molecule sizing 
• How to design treatment trains using The SuDS Manual Mitigation Indices