14 THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE Increasing biodiversity with SuDS
Adam Cane of ACO Water Management explores how housebuilders and developers can build better places to live through including biodiversity and SuDS.
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t may come as little surprise, but the current prognosis for biodiversity in the UK is stark. Almost half of Britain’s natural biodiversity has disappeared over the centuries since the Industrial Revolution. Many species and habitats are still being lost today, owing to the pressure to continue building and an ever- decreasing availability of land. To illustrate the situation, we just need to look at the hedgehog population. Up to three quarters of all of Britain’s rural hedgehogs have been lost in the past 20 years. Already classed as vulnerable to extinction, countryside populations have declined by an average of 8.3% a year for the past two decades, as road networks have left the animals isolated. In another instance, the UK has seen a 90% depletion in wetland habitats in the last 100 years. As a result, over 10% of freshwater and wetland species are now
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at risk of extinction, as reported in the 2021 River Basin Management Plan. Only 16% of England’s water bodies are rated at ‘good ecological status’ (GES), which could explain this decline.
These issues are not just having an effect on wildlife. People and places are being negatively impacted, too – replacing green spaces with hard landscaped developments not only means a loss in natural beauty but also increases the chance of flooding. Therefore, it’s no longer a case of just reducing carbon emissions – reversing the impact of the built environment on the natural world is imperative. Here, housebuilders have a unique role to play, and are positioned to make a difference.
PREVENTING POLLUTION
One such way of making a positive change is preventing contaminants left on roads from being washed into waterways and surrounding the surrounding habitats. Controlling the quality of runoff is critical here, forming a key pillar of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS). Natural resources can only clean water to a certain point, so before water is discharged into swales and ditches in SuDS schemes, there needs to be a system
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