SuDS ROUTE MAPS - Surface Water Management Measures
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What are SuDS?
SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) are surface water management
measures which mimic natural hydrological processes, offering
benefits in flood risk management, water quality, biodiversity, and
public amenity. The most commonly accepted definition for SuDS
in the UK can be found on the SuDS community susdrain website
(http://www.susdrain.org) . Through susdrain's work, practitioners
have been able to demonstrate from UK and international examples
that SuDS features in new developments and existing urban spaces
can aid mental wellbeing, deliver health benefits, add real economic
value to a place, absorb carbon dioxide, provide urban cooling in
summer and encourage infiltration, reducing the burden on public
sewerage networks.
The ICE / ACO SuDS route maps
This guide was produced by the ICE SuDS Task Group which was sponsored
by ACO Technologies plc. Starting in September 2016 the group brought
together experts from a wide range of professional and organisational
backgrounds including design, planning, policy and retrofitting, for the
defined project of producing a resource that would assist SuDS practitioners,
specifically to help get more SuDS more widely adopted.
The Task Group's survey, in early 2017, of over 400 practitioners indicated,
amongst other things, that most thought that a set of route maps to
summarise the phases of SuDS delivery would be most helpful for the wide
range of professionals involved in delivering SuDS.
There is a wealth of high quality resources and information relating to
SuDS design and delivery - notably the CIRIA C753 SuDS Manual and the
supportive community susdrain. The ICE SuDS Task Group wanted to draw
together relevant resources into one single place, to provide professionals
and stakeholders involved in SuDS delivery a clear, easy to follow process
for the delivery of SuDS and signposting to relevant resources. These SuDS
Route Maps have been peer reviewed by consultants, Water UK members
and environmental organisations of the four UK nations, and their feedback
incorporated.
The route maps serve two functions:
1 Outlining the processes and stages involved in SuDS delivery (Preplanning, Outline Design, Detailed Design, Pre-construction,
Construction,
Adoption, Maintenance and Retrofitting).
2 Providing links to other sources of information and resources to enable
professionals to design, deliver, adopt and maintain SuDS.
It is important to note that the purpose of these route maps is not to replace
the advice or expertise of SuDS professionals, or to provide a detailed
and comprehensive guide to SuDS. Rather, the aim of is to act as an aide
memoire for existing and future SuDs professionals. The Task Group also very
much hopes that the route maps will help explain the processes involved to
fellow built environment professionals who currently may not know a great
deal about the many tasks required for successful SuDS delivery, as the need
for SuDS and their multiple benefits become more widely accepted.
The route maps will be updated and maintained in line with updates to SuDS
guidance and regulation and other developments in the sector.
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The Context for SuDS