Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are now the preferred approach to managing rainfall from hard surfaces and can be used on any site.
There are many different sustainable drainage system features available to suit the constraints of a site. They include green roofs, and more natural features such as ponds, wetlands and shallow ditches called swales.
Hard engineered elements are often used in high density, commercial and industrial developments. These include permeable paving, canals, treatment channels, attenuation storage and soakaways.
The main purpose of sustainable drainage systems is to mimic the natural drainage of the site before development. This is achieved by capturing rainfall, allowing as much as possible to evaporate or soak into the ground close to where it fell. The rest is directed to the nearest watercourse to be released at the same rate and volumes as before development.
Sustainable drainage design competition
The winners of the Cambridge Sustainable Drainage Design Competition have been announced as Royal Haskoning (Peterborough Office) in first place, second place goes to Giles Hopgood and third place goes to Mott MacDonald (Cambridge Office).
The national competition was the first in the UK and was organised by Cambridge City Council, CIRIA and Cambridgeshire Horizons, to show that good upfront design and the integration of SuDS within a development could lead to high quality and successful schemes.
The winning entries can be found below:
Cambridge City Council would like to thank all those who entered.
Benefits of sustainable drainage systems
Along the way to the nearest watercourse, any pollutants are reduced - including metals and hydrocarbons from roads and car parks. Water entering a local watercourse is cleaner as a result and does not harm wildlife habitats.
Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) generally replace traditional underground piped systems that use grates or storm water drains at street level. This means any problems with the system are quicker and easier to identify than with a conventional system and are likely to be cheaper and more straightforward to rectify.
SuDS will become increasingly important to control surface water if rainfall increases because of climate change. They can also provide other benefits in developments such as passive cooling, which will again help mitigate any increase in temperatures due to climate change.
Sustainable drainage design guide
To promote the use of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) within Cambridge, the council has taken the decision to adopt SuDS that are located within public open space and produced the Cambridge Sustainable Drainage Design and Adoption Guide that sets out the council’s requirements.
You can download the Cambridge Sustainable Drainage Design and Adoption Guide in full, although it is a large file (35MB).
Alternatively, the full guide is available below, split into bitesize sections:
- Appendices - these include:
- Appendix A – Example of maintenance costs
- Appendix B - Detailed breakdown of maintenance costs, including annual costs
- Appendix C – Example of how to integrate SuDS into a development
- Appendix D – Cambridge adoption checklist
- Appendix E - Glossary
Launch event 2009
The Cambridge sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) launch event took place on 10 December 2009.
There were a number of SuDS presentations and downloadable versions of these are available:
- Eithne Flanagan - Cambridge City Council - Introduction
- Jonathan Glerum - CIRIA - The Flood and Water Management Bill and the National SUDS Standards
- Steve Wilson - EPG Ltd - The Cambridge Adoption Guide
- Bob Bray - R Bray and Associates - The Art of SuDS
- Simon Bunn - Cambridge City Council - Sustainable Drainage Design Competition
