Sustainable urban Drainage (SuDS) Design

We are fully up to date will all latest SuDS developments and detailed design standards meaning we can prepare construction issue SuDS drawing packages which are fully integrated with your unique development proposals. This increases development yield, increasing development value whilst providing a robust drainage system which can accommodate increasing climate change risks.

Sustainable urban Drainage (SuDS) Design

Within England, the adoption of SuDS is not compulsory by any one party with many parties having the ability, if desirable, to adopt SuDS. This was due to the breakdown of the implementation of Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

In practice, the adoption of SuDS by authorities best placed to maintain them such as sewerage undertakers, Local Authorities and Highways is met with reluctance and more typically, adoption of SuDS is undertaken by private management companies with revenue generated by service charging.

A SuDS Drainage Strategy utilises open SuDS features such as attenuation ponds, swales, permeable paving and green roofs connected to each other in series to ensure runoff rate, runoff volume and runoff pollution does not exceed that of the greenfield site.

SuDS features work with the contouring of the land and are surface based meaning they can store and convey large volumes of runoff at surface level should the need arise and do no reach a finite capacity before quickly flooding as do pipes. This is particularly useful given the unpredictable nature of climate change.

If SuDS are implemented correctly on developments, the space they occupy can be multipurpose, providing green amenity space during much of the year and important drainage infrastructure during wet periods. This allows the plan area SuDS occupy to count towards public open space requirements meaning if designed for correctly, dedicated developable area does not necessarily need to be put aside to implement SuDS.