36 FLOOD CONTROL & SUDS
TURNING FLOODS INTO AN ASSET
Management of and protection from localised flooding is a rising concern for housebuilders, but SuDS and flood control doesn’t have to be only about moving water to safety. Sean Robinson of Polypipe argues that new housing estates provide the perfect opportunity to harness water as a resource.
he summer conditions this year have turned swathes of green spaces within our inner cities and suburban estates into dry dustbowls, and highlighted the long-predicted challenge of resource management facing the country. As weather in the UK becomes more extreme, solutions to harness the changing conditions need to be adopted more quickly by architects, planners, house- builders, and landscape specialists. Policy makers, urban planners and archi- tects are fully aware of the need to change the way rainwater is managed in urban environments. Some notable reports are
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encouraging greater focus on water management by all stakeholders in the building process. In July, the Westminster sustainable business forum (WSBF) released its ‘Bricks and Water’ report on housebuilding, water management and planning policy, which was followed in the same month by the latest National Adaption Programme on climate change being released by Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which requires local authorities to take greater account of climate change in their planning decisions. For generations, the received wisdom has
been to manage water away from buildings as efficiently as possible to minimise long- term damage. But key factors are coming to a head that require a rethink in the relationship between housebuilding, city developments, and water management. With a change of mindset, driven by
new research and guidance, developers have the chance to harness the storm water on a housing development as a resource to keep new estates and urban communal spaces green, and to help mitigate the strain our water supply will come under for the next generation.
The first factor is the critical need for new houses to be built at an unprecedented rate over the next decade, to help the UK overcome its growing housing shortfall. A massive 1.5 million new homes has been pledged by 2022, but the Government is already struggling to deliver the momen- tum required, with 80 per cent of housebuilders predicting that the industry will fall short. If this target was achieved, a new problem would become apparent, as up to 2.5 million homes would then be situated in locations susceptible to flood risks. Thirdly, along with changing weather patterns that could leave our biggest water reserves struggling to service the country each year, the WSBF is predicting a severe swing from a ‘water surplus’ of 12 per cent to a ‘water deficit’ of 22 per cent by as early as 2050 – just over 30 years from now. The solutions to these long-term issues are already available on the market, but are being neglected by some housebuilders. As
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