WATER HYGIENE AND SAFETY – SPECIAL REPORT
Why sustainable drainage systems make good sense
Kristen Guida, Manager at the London Climate Change Partnership, explores some of the benefits to hospitals and other healthcare facilities of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), particularly in better rainwater and surface water management. She explores how ‘greening a hospital can provide opportunities for rainwater management and create beautiful places and spaces’.
Before COVID-19, the climate emergency was sparking discussions and driving estates and landscape managers to consider how to address the challenges of climate change and improve sustainability. Although the pandemic has shifted people’s attention in recent months, it has also highlighted the importance of green space for people’s health and wellbeing, and caused an upsurge of interest in Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), or green spaces that manage rainfall and surface water flooding.
SuDS are gaining in popularity because alongside practical drainage and flood risk benefits, they offer a more natural solution with a range of health and wellbeing benefits: attractive green spaces, enhanced water quality, and improved physical and mental health and wellbeing for people. A hospital can be an ideal setting for SuDS, which provide a range of benefits for patients, staff, and visitors. The flat roofs and large impermeable surfaces found in many hospitals provide opportunities to
retrofit SuDS, and there have been some notable examples of SuDS installations in hospitals, including at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, Southmead Hospital in Bristol, and Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital in Essex, where a SuDS system was retrofitted.
Simple changes
The SuDS approach can include simple changes, like diverting rainwater so run- off soaks into the ground, or using permeable surfaces in car parks and courtyards. Alternatively, it can include more complex interventions like wetlands, with many interconnected features. Typical SuDS features used in and around hospitals and health centres include rain planters, rain gardens, and swales. Where space is limited, SuDS can also include permeable surfaces or green or blue roofs. Rainwater harvesting alongside SuDS installations can also reduce run-off and the amount of mains water used for watering gardens.
Well-designed SuDS provide more
The benefits of SuDS Health and wellbeing
There is substantial evidence linking green features like SuDS to better health outcomes. Green SuDS features provide attractive, vibrant spaces for people to enjoy. While there is extensive research showing that SuDS in neighbourhoods reduce heat stress, improve air quality, reduce stress, and increase social interaction and physical activity,1
there
is also evidence that pleasant natural surroundings and a view of greenery can improve the mental wellbeing and recovery of patients in hospitals and reduce the need for treatment.2,3 Flourishing green gardens and water
benefits, and are often less expensive, than traditional approaches to drainage and landscaping to build and maintain. For hospitals and associated estates, maintenance often requires little more than standard landscape maintenance, which in most cases can be carried out by site managers, existing landscape contractors, and community volunteers.
Among hospitals with notable SuDS installations are Southmead Hospital in Bristol (left), and Basildon University Hospital in Essex (right), where a SuDS system was retrofitted.
December 2020 Health Estate Journal 29
©JNorth Bristol NHS Trust
©Jacobs UK
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