E NVIRONME NTAL NE WS
Why collaboration is key to a resilient future
The forthcoming Environmental Bill will be the biggest shake-up of green legislation in a generation when it comes into law next year, with a paradigm shift in how our water resources are managed and protected. Jon Stewart, Business Development Director for Drainage at Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation, explores the impact of the Bill and how the drainage industry can bring it to fruition by thinking differently and collaboratively.
The government’s Environmental Bill, which is currently in the House of Lords, will bring unprecedented reform to our foremost environmental priorities, with legally binding changes spanning aspects from air quality to the regulation of chemicals. While far-reaching in its remit, at the heart of the legislation is creating resilience – building and preserving an environment that’s able to withstand the impact of climate change, population growth and resource scarcity.
Water, as the lifeblood of the natural world, is essential to building this resilience. It therefore forms a vital part of the upcoming Bill with a focus on how we manage water and wastewater services more effectively for future generations.
Within the Bill, water companies will be required to publish a water resources management plan, as well as strategies for drought, flood and overall catchment resilience. With the latter in particular, the Bill focuses on building capacity into the water undertaker’s drainage and sewerage system to meet current and future
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demand and reporting on storm overflow performance annually.
Although the direct impact of these changes is still coming to light, we can expect the new obligations around water management to affect local planning policy, those designing and constructing developments, and organisations that manage public buildings, requiring greater detailed consideration of how resources are used and re-used.
The need for integration
The new requirements of the Environmental Bill are certainly a landmark step for water management, giving legal recognition of its importance in protecting and enhancing the world around us. Yet if we are to increase resilience effectively, it’s critical that we avoid a singular approach with separate strategies when designing, building and managing spaces and developments.
Typically, we develop plans for potable water, flooding, drought, water quality and environmental risk individually. However, by rethinking how we manage water and wastewater in an integrated way, we can tackle all these elements simultaneously with a scalable and evolvable approach. What’s more, this way of thinking also helps meet some of the wider sustainability objectives of the Bill such as Biodiversity Net Gain, which requires developers to achieve a minimum of 10 per cent improvement in biodiversity on or near a site to get planning consent.
| August 2021 |
www.draintraderltd.com Next generation technologies
The next generation of sustainable drainage systems, called green urbanisation, utilises attenuated surface water at source to build resilient landscapes that can withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events. These ground-breaking systems increase urban green density and enable local ecosystems to establish and mature, delivering the maximum natural capital return.
One of the key enabling technologies of green urbanisation is shallow invert geocellular sub- base replacement cells that are interconnected using unique geometric ties to create a uniform structural ‘raft’ with exceptionally high load bearing characteristics.
This technology can be used to attenuate and manage water at ground, as well as roof or podium level. A shallow invert makes them ideal for projects where there is a high water table, contaminated brownfield land or where there is a shallow outfall – a situation where conventional deep buried surface water storage tanks would require additional pumping.
Having the ability to store water safely immediately beneath a finished surface allows innovative passive irrigation. Surface planting can be sustained by drawing stored water from the raft through special ‘wicking cones’ to the soil above. This unique, net zero feature enhances resilience – supporting volume planting and ecosystems through extended dry spells.
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