Sustainable Drainage Systems Research Articles

MULTI-CRITERIA APPROACH FOR DESIGNING SUSTAINABLE DRAINAGE IN MALANG RESIDENTIAL AREA INDONESIA

Environmentally sound approach for sustainable urban drainage could promote infiltration and lower the risk of flooding. This study presents the framework to evaluate the drainage alternatives considering multiple aspects including water quantity, life cycle cost and amenity. This approach is verified through application at a residential area in Malang city Indonesia. Different combinations of drainage components comprising of drainage channels, infiltration wells and biopore absorption holes are assessed regarding runoff reduction, present value of life cycle cost, and willingness to pay for the convenience. The first part describes the effective designs of sustainable drainage components in the houses as well as in the public spaces of the housing. The second part of this study describes the use of analytic hierarchy process for weight assignment of sustainability criteria and multiple benefit calculation. The study recommends infiltration wells and biopore absorption holes together with drainage channels as the best management practice of sustainable drainage system based on its overall sustainability index.

Multiple rainfall event pollution transport by sustainable drainage systems: the fate of fine sediment pollution

A key design criterion of sustainable urban drainage systems is to mitigate urban stormwater pollution. Current research defines sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) pollutant treatment efficiency through the detention of total suspended solids, urban nutrients and heavy metal pollutants within the system during a design flow event, with research focusing on sand (>2 mm) sediment movement. The impact of multiple rainfall–runoff events on the fine sediment (<2 mm) treatment efficiency of SuDS is not yet well defined, and the temporal movement of detained sediment has not been investigated in detail. The field research presented in this paper addresses this research gap, monitoring ongoing fine sediment transport through a best-practice-designed SuDS network over 12 months through the use of a novel rare earth oxide trace methodology. Through time-stepped monitoring of the fine sediment pollution across three SuDS treatment trains (networks), the following key conclusions have been drawn. (1) That fine sediment becomes re-suspended and re-deposited within SuDS assets and the network as a result of ongoing multiple rainfall–runoff events. (2) That this re-suspension continues for over 52 weeks. (3) That by area, linear wetlands (within the monitored networks) outperform wetland and swale assets in multiple event fine sediment detention. And (4) that multiple event monitoring and analysis of fine sediment within a SuDS network highlights the under-performance of SuDS assets against current design event expectations.

Economic analysis of wider benefits to facilitate SuDS uptake in London, UK

Urban water management via Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) has been successfully applied in cities worldwide. This infrastructure has proven to be a cost efficient solution to manage flood risks whilst also delivering wider benefits. Despite their technical performance, large-scale SuDS uptake in many places has been slow, mostly due to reasons beyond the engineering realm. This is the case of England and Wales, where the implementation of SuDS has not reached its full potential. This paper investigates the strategic role of SuDS retrofit in managing environmental risks to urban infrastructure at a catchment level, through an economic appraisal of all benefits (i.e. flood reduction and wider benefits). The Decoy Brook catchment in London, UK, was used as a case study. Average Annual Benefits were used to monetise the value of SuDS in reducing surface flood risk, whilst a Value Transfer approach was used to appraise wider benefits. It was found that by including the latter, their economic feasibility improves considerably. This paper also shows how to split the investment amongst multiple stakeholders, by highlighting the benefits each one derives. Finally, recommendations regarding incentives and policies to enhance the uptake of SuDS are given. The proposed methodology for SuDS mapping and economic appraisal in the planning phase can be used in cities worldwide, as long as general principles are adapted to local contexts.

Effectiveness of BIOECODS for peak flow attenuation: an appraisal using InfoWorks SD

ABSTRACTThe Bio-Ecological Drainage System (BIOECODS) is a sustainable drainage system, which adopts a “control at source” approach for urban storm water management in Malaysia. This study attempts to model a small-scale BIOECODS using InfoWorks SD. New modelling techniques are used to fully integrate the surface and on-line subsurface conveyance system, in which overland flow routing is described by a storm water management model that uses a nonlinear reservoir method and the kinematic wave approximation of the St Venant equation, and subsurface flow is described by the Horton method in conjunction with the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) curve number (CN) method. The observed water levels at primary outlets are compared with those obtained from model simulation. The modelling approach has been proven successful as the hydrographs (predicted and observed) match each other closely, with a mean error in the range of 4.58–7.32%. Results from the model showed that the BIOECODS is able to attenuate peak flow by 60–75%, and increase the lag time by 20 min within an area of <28 300 m2 when compared with a traditional drainage system.

Coupling GIS with Stormwater Modelling for the Location Prioritization and Hydrological Simulation of Permeable Pavements in Urban Catchments

Permeable Pavement Systems (PPS) are an alternative to conventional paving systems that allow water to filter through their layers instead of running off them. They are structural source control Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS), which can contribute to reducing increased flood risk due to the combination of two of the greatest challenges with which cities will have to deal in the future: urbanization and Climate Change. Hence, this research consisted of the design of a site selection methodology for the location prioritization of PPS in urban catchments, in order to simulate their potential to attenuate flooding caused by severe rainfall events. This was achieved through the coupling of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and stormwater models, whose combination provided a framework for both locating and characterizing PPS. The usefulness of the methodology was tested through a real case study consisting of an urban catchment located in Espoo (southern Finland), which demonstrated that PPS can make a significant difference in the amount of runoff generated in an urban catchment due to intense storms.

Properties of sustainable lightweight pervious concrete containing oil palm kernel shell as coarse aggregate

Today, pervious concrete is one of the best materials used in sustainable drainage system. Due to the limitations of raw materials, the use of waste materials in concrete is able to reduce the negative impacts of concrete towards the environment. Therefore, this study presents the development of a sustainable lightweight pervious concrete by replacing natural coarse aggregate sized 6.30–9.50mm with waste material from palm oil industry sized 4.75–6.30mm and 6.30–9.50mm. For this purpose, limestone was partially replaced (from 25 to 75% by mass) with oil palm kernel shell (OPKS) to produce sustainable lightweight pervious concrete. Properties, including both fresh and hardened density and void content, compressive and tensile strength as well as permeability were discussed. The results indicated that it is possible to produce sustainable lightweight pervious concrete by incorporating lightweight waste material from the palm oil industry. Results also showed that the kind of concrete produced is suitable for use in light traffic roads and parking lots. Furthermore, in this research, pervious concrete containing the OPKS showed high water permeability, which varies from 4 to 16mm/s, in addition to acceptable compressive strength, ranging from 6 to 12MPa.

Strategic Framework for Sustainable Management of Drainage Systems in Semi-Arid Cities: An Iraqi Case Study

For the purpose of this paper, Erbil city, located in the northern part of Iraq, has been chosen as a representative case study for a large number of cities, particularly in semi-arid areas, lacking sustainable drainage systems (SuDS). The study assesses (a) the role of SuDS as a measure in areas with a water shortage; (b) water scarcity in decision-making processes; (c) the lack of legislation to implement SuDS; (d) the adverse effects of climate change on the urban drainage system; and (e) the effects of an increased population on SuDS implementation. An integrated methodology that incorporates a self-administrated questionnaire, workshops, face-to-face communication and interviews, as well as electronic media interactions, were used to achieve the objectives. A generic platform that consists of thirteen pillars, supporting the short to long-term national policies and strategies towards a sustainable urban drainage system, has been developed. Results showed that environmental laws need to be introduced. Findings also indicate that a growing population, which is partly due to an increase of internally displaced people, is a major challenge to an early application of SuDS, due to a rise in land demand and a lack of financial resources.

Implementing sustainable drainage systems for urban surface water management within the regulatory framework in England and Wales

The UK 2007 floods resulted in damages estimated to exceed over £4 billion. This triggered a national review of strategic flood risk management (Pitt, 2008) with its recommendations informing and implemented by the Flood and Water Management, Act (FWMA, 2010). Estimating that up to two-thirds of properties flooded in the 2007 event as a direct result of overloaded sewer systems, the FWMA set out an ambitious overhaul of flood risk management approaches including identifying bodies responsible for the management of local flood risk (local municipalities) and the development of over-arching Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) at a regional level. LLFAs duties include developing local flood risk management strategies and, aligned with this, many LLFAs and local municipalities produced sustainable drainage system (SUDS) guidance notes. In parallel, changes to the national planning policy framework (NPPF) in England give priority to the use of SUDS in new major developments, as does the related Town and Country Planning Order (2015). However, whilst all three pieces of legislation refer to the preferential use of SUDs, these requirements remain “economically proportionate” and thus the inclusion of SUDS within development controls remain desirable - but not mandatory - obligations. Within this dynamic policy context, reignited most recently by the December 2015 floods, this paper examines some of the challenges to the implementation of SUDS in England and Wales posed by the new regulatory frameworks. In particular, it examines how emerging organisational procedures and processes are likely to impact on future SUDS implementation, and highlights the need for further cross-sectoral working to ensure opportunities for cross-sectoral benefits– such as that accrued by reducing stormwater flows within combined sewer systems for water companies, property developers and environmental protection – are not lost.

Sustainable drainage system site assessment method using urban ecosystem services

The United Kingdom’s recently updated approach to sustainable drainage enhanced biodiversity and amenity objectives by incorporating the ecosystem approach and the ecosystem services concept. However, cost-effective and reliable methods to appraise the biodiversity and amenity values of potential sustainable drainage system (SuDS) sites and their surrounding areas are still lacking, as is a method to enable designers to distinguish and link the amenity and biodiversity benefits that SuDS schemes can offer. In this paper, therefore, the authors propose two ecosystem services- and disservices-based methods (i.e. vegetation structure cover-abundance examination and cultural ecosystem services and disservices variables appraisal) to aid SuDS designers to distinguish and link amenity and biodiversity benefits, and allow initial site assessments to be performed in a cost-effective and reliable fashion. Forty-nine representative sites within Greater Manchester were selected to test the two methods. Amenity and biodiversity were successfully assessed and habitat for species, carbon sequestration, recreation and education ecosystem services scores were produced, which will support SuDS retrofit design decision-making. Large vegetated SuDS sites with permanent aquatic features were found to be most capable of enhancing biodiversity- and amenity-related ecosystem services. Habitat for species and recreation ecosystem services were also found to be positively linked to each other. Finally, waste bins on site were found to help reduce dog faeces and litter coverage. Overall, the findings presented here enable future SuDS retrofit designs to be more wildlife friendly and socially inclusive.

A Field Study to Evaluate Runoff Quantity from Blue Roof and Green Blue Roof in an Urban Area

This study evaluated performance for runoff management of the Blue roof and Green blue roof comparing monitoring data measured at two low impact development (LID) facilities and control roof in Seoul metropolitan area. From the results these two roofs proved as suitable stormwater management practices in urban areas. For this purposes, Blue roof and Green-blue roof were installed at Seoul City Hall Annex Seosomun and Cheong-un middle school respectively. The data used for this study were collected during the actual storm events of more than 30 mm/hr and 60 mm/hr rainfall intensity in July and September 2014 at green blue roof and blue roof. During different actual storm events, rainfall runoff outflow was measured from blue roof was 0.45 l/s as compared to common roof where outflow was 1.55 l/s. While on the other hand, the outflow from green blue roof was 0.1 l/s to as compared to control roof where the runoff outflow was 0.3 l/s. Results also indicated the peak flow reduction in both types of roofs. From the results, it was found that Green blue roof is capable of handling effectively long duration rain events than blue roof. However, the blue roof is inexpensive than green blue roof and suitable option for retrofitting in urban areas. These results also revealed that Blue roof and Green blue roof could be applied to urban buildings as the suitable management practices for rainfall runoff management in urban areas. At the end, from theoretical analysis some suggestions are also made which could be apply for the more safe sustainable drainage system of an urban area.

Decision Support Tool for energy-efficient, sustainable and integrated urban stormwater management

The use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) to manage urban runoff and contribute to environmental and landscape improvement is now widely known, but its application is still limited in many regions, like in Mediterranean countries. In addition, there is a lack of Decision Support Tools that consider all their benefits in the decision making process in a clear and integrated holistic way.In this paper, the E2STORMED Decision Support Tool is presented. This tool analyses the impact of stormwater management in the urban environment and introduces energetic and environmental criteria in the decision making process. Therefore, it aims to fill in the existing “gap” between SuDS manuals and guidelines and regional and local decision makers, since it quantifies SuDS benefits and includes them in the comparison of different stormwater scenarios. Finally, the results of applying this tool to compare drainage infrastructures in a real urban development are described.

Implementation of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems to Preserve Cultural Heritage — Pilot Motte Montferland

The shallow subsurface in historic cities often contains extensive archaeological remains, also known as cultural deposits. Preservation conditions for naturally degradable archaeological remains are strongly dependent on the presence or absence of groundwater. One of the main goals at such heritage sites is to establish a stable hydrological environment. Green infrastructural solutions such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) can support preservation of cultural deposits. Several cases show that implementation of SUDS can be cost effective at preservation of cultural deposits. These include Motte of Montferland, City mound of Vlaardingen, Weiwerd in Delfzijl, and the Leidse Rijn area. In all cases, the amount of underground infrastructure is minimised to prevent damaging cultural layers. SUDS have been implemented to preserve cultural heritage. The first monitoring results and evaluation of the processes give valuable lessons learned, transnational knowledge exchange is an important element to bring the experiences across boundaries.

The role of monitoring sustainable drainage systems for promoting transition towards regenerative urban built environments: a case study in the Valencian region, Spain

Sustainable drainage systems are an alternative and holistic approach to conventional urban stormwater management that use and enhance natural processes to mimic pre-development hydrology, adding a number of well-recognized, although not so often quantified benefits. However, transitions towards regenerative urban built environments that widely incorporate sustainable drainage systems are “per se” innovative journeys that encounter barriers which include the limited evidence on the performance of these systems which, in many countries, are still unknown to professionals and decision makers. A further important barrier is the frequently poor interaction among stakeholders; key items such as sustainable drainage systems provide collective benefits which also demand collective efforts. With the aim of overcoming such innovation-driven barriers, six showcase projects (including rain gardens acting as infiltration basins, swales and a green roof) to demonstrate the feasibility and suitability of sustainable drainage systems were developed and/or retrofitted in two cities of the Valencian region of Spain as a part of an European project, and their performance was monitored for a year. The data acquired, after being fully analyzed and presented to a group of key regional stakeholders, is proving to be a valuable promoter of the desired transition (for instance in influencing the support to SuDS in recent regional legislation). This paper presents detailed data on how these urban ecological drainage infrastructure elements reduce runoff (peak flows and volumes) and improve its quality, contributing to the goal of healthier and livable cities. The data show that the pilots have good hydraulic performance under a typical Mediterranean climate and also provided water quality benefits. Furthermore, it shows how engagement can contribute to smarter governance in the sense of smoothing the difficulties faced by innovation when being presented, understood, and endorsed by professionals and decision-makers in the field of stormwater management. Finally, activities undertaken in the demonstration sites monitored, show how they have been drivers of innovation and transition towards a new stormwater paradigm in Spain, serving as a reference to other urban areas in the Mediterranean.

Sustainable stormwater management in Yinchuan New Town

In Yinchuan, China, a new urban area is planned for 160,000 inhabitants, in the vicinity of the Yellow River and close to a valuable natural landscape. To achieve sustainable development, an approach integrating urban planning, transport, energy, solid waste and water resources management is necessary. In order to achieve this, the SimbioCity approach was applied, where resource use and pollutant loads are reduced by creating cycles in which materials and water are recycled to the largest possible extent. In this context, the stormwater system is an important component. The objectives for the planned stormwater system in Yinchuan New City were to reduce flood risk and introduce stormwater purification, to maintain or improve water quality in the existing water bodies. A Sustainable Urban Drainage System approach was proposed and applied, during configuration and design of the new town's infrastructure. This proved both successful and cost effective.

Governance of Integrated Urban Water Management in Melbourne, Australia

The Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) paradigm, including concepts such as water reuse, and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, has become popular within Melbourne, and this has created new governance issues. This paper explores the relationship between changing governance structures and IUWM implementation. It is found that IUWM implementation has predominantly been accelerated by: a major drought, and implementing the Office of Living Victoria (OLV) as an overarching body. Efforts by the OLV have increased inter-agency collaboration, and institutionalised integrated planning. However, there is still no consensus on what the specifics of IUWM planning and infrastructure arrangements should actually look like.

THE POTENTIAL FOR GREEN ROOFS IN SUSTAINABLE URBAN DRAINAGE SYSTEMS

Urban environments tend to lack the capacity to absorb water from precipitation. This is due to vegetated surfaces being replaced by impermeable ones, such as concrete, bitumen or similar. As a result problems can occur, where a period of heavy rainfall coincides with sudden increases in surface water runoff. This in turn can lead to a city’s sewerage system becoming overloaded. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), are recognized worldwide as a successful manner by which to mitigate this phenomenon. One of the principal components of SUDS are permeable areas in an urban setting, which have the ability to absorb and retain rainfall that would otherwise flow as surface runoff. To date there has been little research into what the effect of a massive increase in green roofs would have for cities in Ecuador. As a developing country, it is not uncommon for cities’ sewerage systems to suffer collapse when faced with sudden rainfall peak loads. It is suggested in this paper, that instead of looking to implement costly sewerage expansion programs, it would be more cost effective to implement city scale green roof systems. The paper sets out to quantify the theoretical effect of such an initiative.

Sustainable urban drainage systems: examining the potential for green infrastructure-based stormwater management for Sub-Saharan cities

Green infrastructure (GI)-based approaches to urban drainage such as sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) could provide Sub-Saharan cities with an opportunity to address projected climate change impacts and existing deficits in their drainage infrastructure, even more so due to the synergies between an enhanced green infrastructure stock and sustainable urban development. The objective of this paper was to assess the theoretical value of using green infrastructure for stormwater management as an alternative and supplement to conventional pipe-based stormwater management systems. A SWOT analysis is performed to assess the potential that SUDS hold if adopted and implemented in Sub-Saharan cities. This analysis is based on a review of sustainable stormwater management as well as urban planning and governance literature. Results show that despite seemingly significant barriers to the adoption of SUDS in Sub-Saharan cities such as low prioritization on the urban agenda and lack of data among others, the concept may hold valuable potential for flood risk reduction, even more so due to its multi-functionality and synergies with urban agriculture, amenity and water supply. In the light of the existing threats and weaknesses, it is recommended that GI-based SUDS may be best approached initially as experiments at a local community scale.

Brownfields to green fields: Realising wider benefits from practical contaminant phytomanagement strategies

Gentle remediation options (GROs) are risk management strategies or technologies involving plant (phyto-), fungi (myco-), and/or bacteria-based methods that result in a net gain (or at least no gross reduction) in soil function as well as effective risk management. GRO strategies can be customised along contaminant linkages, and can generate a range of wider economic, environmental and societal benefits in contaminated land management (and in brownfields management more widely). The application of GROs as practical on-site remedial solutions is still limited however, particularly in Europe and at trace element (typically metal and metalloid) contaminated sites. This paper discusses challenges to the practical adoption of GROs in contaminated land management, and outlines the decision support tools and best practice guidance developed in the European Commission FP7-funded GREENLAND project aimed at overcoming these challenges. The GREENLAND guidance promotes a refocus from phytoremediation to wider GROs- or phyto-management based approaches which place realisation of wider benefits at the core of site design, and where gentle remediation technologies can be applied as part of integrated, mixed, site risk management solutions or as part of “holding strategies” for vacant sites. The combination of GROs with renewables, both in terms of biomass generation but also with green technologies such as wind and solar power, can provide a range of economic and other benefits and can potentially support the return of low-level contaminated sites to productive usage, while combining GROs with urban design and landscape architecture, and integrating GRO strategies with sustainable urban drainage systems and community gardens/parkland (particularly for health and leisure benefits), has large potential for triggering GRO application and in realising wider benefits in urban and suburban systems. Quantifying these wider benefits and value (above standard economic returns) will be important in leveraging funding for GRO application and soft site end-use more widely at vacant or underutilized sites.

Sustainable drainage systems: helping people live with water

Sustainable drainage systems or ‘Suds’ are increasingly accepted as an effective means of ‘making space for water’, adapting to possible climate change and helping communities become more flood and drought resilient. This study explores potential shifts in perception and attitude through Suds installation, development and habituation. Attitudes and awareness in communities in the USA and UK, where Suds have been in place for some time, were compared and contrasted, examining any evolution of beliefs and practices and wider community resilience. The principal finding was that there existed a lack of understanding about the existence and function of Suds. The paper concludes that consultation regarding solutions during Suds planning and installation, and ongoing dialogue afterwards, could usefully be explored as a means to improve local awareness of and satisfaction with Suds and promote greater understanding of their function. This may in turn encourage behaviour change to improve longer-term functionality of Suds and increase community resilience to flooding and drought.

Willingness to pay for sustainable drainage systems in a highly urbanised city: a contingent valuation study in Hong Kong

AbstractSustainable drainage systems (SuDS) reduce surface runoff and pollution from developed areas using various techniques such as green roofs and porous pavements. These systems are becoming popular worldwide, except in highly urbanised cities. This study used contingent valuation to investigate city dwellers’ perceptions of SuDS and their willingness to pay (WTP). Face‐to‐face interviews were conducted with 600 respondents in Hong Kong. In general, the participants’ understanding of stormwater management was not strong, although they supported SuDS. The mean and the median WTP were 8.8 and 15.0%, respectively, of the current government spending on stormwater management for public places, and 1.8 and 2.5%, respectively, of the property price for private properties. These WTP were lower than those reported in the previous overseas studies. Respondents who were relatively younger, better educated, had higher income, and came from a previously flooded district had higher WTP. These results facilitated strategic SuDS implementation in highly urbanised cities.