Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS): Design and Implementation Climate Northern Ireland in collaboration with Institution of Civil Engineers and Business in the Community/Arena Network Thursday 5th February 2015- Institution of Civil Engineers, Malone Road, Belfast Climate NI, ICE and BITC would like to thank all speakers and panel members for their valuable contribution. SuDS play a key role in increasing regional resilience to flooding. Climate Northern Ireland, the Institution of Civil Engineers and Business in the Community/Arena Network held this event to encourage increased uptake in the built environment. The half-day event brought together industry experts to discuss what effective use of SuDS looks like through presentation of design approaches, design tools, industry case studies and the regulatory context. Climate NI would like to thank ICE, BITC/Arena Network and all the speakers for their contribution. The themes discussed at the event are summarised below: Presentations Michael Francey, Planning Service NI: Regulatory Context: Planning Existing Planning Policy PPS15 (revised September 2014) aims to minimise flood risk to people, property, infrastructure and the environment. The policy is strongly opposed to development in flood plains and requires a risk assessment in flood risk areas. DoE and DARD have developed joint guidance on the use of the Strategic Surface Water Flood Map.
Flood mitigation strategies A physical change like raising floors, flood-proofing. Moving development to an alternative site. SuDs should be pushed as a preferred flood control measure because of the multiple benefits that it brings health and wellbeing, environmental benefits (green and blue infrastructure, economic benefits; essentially delivering on all pillars of sustainable development.) Barriers to SuDs implementation in NI SuDs are not a statutory obligation. NI needs a mechanism whereby SuDs schemes can be approved, implemented and maintained. The new 2-tier planning system offers an opportunity. Opportunities With so much changing in the delivery of planning, Local Development Plans will be important; giving greater local influence over development in Council areas, and a chance to present the value of SuDs to decision-makers. Peter Close, NIEA, Water Management Unit: Regulatory Context: NIEA Belfast infrastructure is currently not fit for purpose and certainly not in the context of projected trends of climate change impacts. SuDs are therefore much-needed. Barriers to SuDs can also be seen as opportunities. Local councils can be the main driving force in their delivery. Drivers for SuDs implementation Climate change and the capacity of drainage infrastructure and sewerage treatment systems. Climate change is the biggest driver for SuDS. Water Frameworks Directive implementation. Economics SuDs makes financial sense. SuDS cost less to build, maintain and retrofit. British Standards. EU directives and policies / strategies are very strong.
Case study Ballyclare pilot Excellent demonstration of the efficiency of SuDs as a common sense approach. Illustrates potential value of green space in slowing the hydrological system down. Potential for Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) for flooding (i.e. paying farmers more money than they would otherwise get to let their fields flood). Matthew Lundy, NI Water (QUB Masters Research): Barriers to SuDS in NI Barriers Leadership There is a lack of clear, strategic responsibility for flooding and a lack of information and data sharing between stakeholders. Legal The definition of sewer and inclusion of SUDS within current systems. Current legislation seen as a barrier to innovation on SuDs in NI. Technical There is a lack of local/regional surface water management plans (SWMPs) and an uncertainty over who would take responsibility for some modelling and mapping for projects. Public involvement The public are not receiving enough information, but generally seem to be in favour. Politicians They need to show initiative and leadership. We need politicians to support SuDS. Resistance to change and a lack of knowledge can also form barriers to implementation. Opportunities Use of the Management-train approach. Source control - rainwater harvesting, green roofs, soakaways and pervious pavement. Site control soakaway or infiltration basin. Strategies Utilisation of land available rather than land-take, stakeholder buy-in, risk management, legislation and policies, innovation and climate adaptation. SuDS don't necessarily require a large land take in developments. Drivers can be environmental, financial, legislative or legal. Quantitative Analysis Quantitative Analysis was undertaken as part of this MSc research project. The results of this questionnaire are based on 43 respondents, 35 of whom have previous experience of working with SuDs and 8 of whom did not. 93% believe that legislative drivers like those proposed in the Long Term Water Strategy will help make more effective progress with SuDS than the rest of the UK. 79% believe that there is not adequate funding available for the adoption and maintenance of SuDS in NI 67% believe that current drainage legislation, regulation and standards are stifling innovation for SuDS in NI. 67% believe that land-take can be an issue with SuDS.
91% agree that there is a need for further information to be given to stakeholders such as property owners, in order to create buy-in to SuDS in their area. 79% believe that more effort should be put into retrofitting SuDS to manage water at the source rather than at catchment level. Discussion Panel A potential barrier to the introduction of SuDs could be overstating how effective the approach is. SuDs is certainly a priority but authorities also need to design for exceedance. FreshWater Task Force advocate for the introduction of SuDs and synergy across water policies (from EU down to local level) in NI. There are examples of NI Water adopting SuDs within current legislative context (which can be restrictive). The current drainage system is not fit for purpose. We are now trying to compensate for lack of investment over the past 30 years. The cost is now falling on home-buyers, through developers. The approach needs to be more integrated and probably incentivised. There is a need for a more integrated government approach, in particular a Land Strategy for NI, setting out a more coordinated approach to how land is used and optimised. While NI policy is a strong presumption against developing on flood plains, this can sometime still happen on the ground. There must be clarity between issues to do with building on floodplains and issues of SuDS. SuDS cannot solve the issue of building on a floodplain. There can be a lack of understanding of what SuDs are. Some projects referred to as SuDs are more accurately described as heavy engineering systems. Northern Ireland has a much fewer SuDS projects compared to Scotland (30,000) which is considered to be 20 years ahead. Skills like planning for exceedance and analysing a need for SuDS systems need to be widespread across local councils after local government reform. There is the issue around who will step up to maintain larger SuDS schemes; local councils or central government agencies. Over the next year there will be several opportunities for stakeholders to input toward consultations on future legislation.
Anthony McCloy, McCloy Consulting: Practicalities from Design to Implementation We need more resilient ways of managing storm water. We should view the issues by catchments, and think about integrating urban design rather than just SuDS. Drainage should be seen as a site asset. We can learn a lot from how nature manages water, as shown through NI Water s work on Garron Plateau. We need to look at the whole system maintenance is required to keep gullies clear. It doesn t matter what system is in place if the water cannot get in to it. Things move forward with political will, but the public already tend to be in favour of the schemes. There are examples of SuDs making a real difference and encouraging residents to take pride in where they live. SuDs need to be woven into existing urban fabric. If integrated from an early stage, there should be no need for additional land-take. If developers see poor SuDS implementation they will react adversely. We need good SuDS examples to drive uptake. Combined sewerage systems cause multiple problems of frequency, rate and volume of flow. It is important to understand the water environment as a connected system. The best examples of SuDs are when engineers work with landscape architects, NGOs etc. for wider benefits. Working across disciplines brings good results. More investment and time spent in the design stage, to incorporate SuDS, will be cost effective. SuDS designers must be involved from early design stage for cost effective and quality outcome. Problems can arise during construction. Drawings need to be clear, and there should be on-site supervision to communicate the key ideas of what is the desired outcome. 98% of infrastructure is already built, so retrofitting is important. Retrofitting SuDS is a key issue as most of our buildings are already built. Communication is key Best practice example Augustenberg, Sweden. Political will pushed through a SuDs scheme that had design input from residents. SuDs should be seen as one tool as part of local authorities undertaking a wider process of regeneration. Table discussion What is needed to drive SuDs forward in NI? Political will - NGO involvement and engagement with politicians and decision makers (for example, the NI Freshwater Task Force). This includes public education and awareness. Legislative changes will also be needed to provide leadership. Education at all levels. In particular, demonstrating best practice examples from NI, public sector leading by example, and getting decision makers and authorities on site visits to see SuDs in reality and illustrate potential cost savings. Consideration of maintenance - could NI Water maintain hard SuDs and local councils maintain soft ones? There is currently a lack of clarity on who maintains soft SuDs projects should they begin to receive approval. Improving the design phase is crucial, as is scoping for the suitability of retrofitting. There may be a place for a SuDs approval body. There is a need for a cross-disciplinary approach to break down current siloed approaches. There is a current lack of synergy between government bodies, engineers, NGOs etc.
A G E N D A Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS): Design and Implementation Thursday 5th February 2015 Institution of Civil Engineers, 143 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 6SX 09:00 12:30 SuDS play a key role in increasing regional resilience to flooding. Climate Northern Ireland, the Institution of Civil Engineers and Business in the Community/Arena Network are holding this event to encourage increased uptake in the built environment. Industry experts will support practitioners in effective use of SuDS through presentation and discussion of design approaches, design tools, industry case studies and the regulatory context. 09:00 Registration and Refreshments 09:15 Welcome Jane McCullough, Climate NI P R O G R A M M E 09:20 Regulatory Context: Planning Michael Francey, Planning Service NI 09:35 Regulatory Context: NIEA Peter Close, NIEA, Water Management Unit 09:50 Barriers to SuDS in NI Matthew Lundy, NI Water (QUB Masters Research) 10:05 PANEL: Benefits and Barriers to SuDS in NI context Chaired by Richard Kirk, ICE David Porter, Rivers Agency John Martin, RSPB/ Freshwater Task Force Peter Close, NIEA Water Management Unit Michael Francey, Planning Service NI Frank Stewart, NI Water Developers Services 10:45 Refreshments and Networking 11:00 Practicalities from Design to Implementation Anthony McCloy, McCloy Consulting 11:30 Table Discussions: What is needed to drive SuDS forward in NI? 12:00 Report back and discussion Richard Kirk, ICE 12:30 Close