EDITOR’S PICKS
Picture credit – Erin Rothman
Sustainable Drainage: The 6 REs By Martin Osborne, Hemdean Consulting
excellent blog on LinkedIn
Lots of techniques have been developed over recent years for identifying suitable locations for sustainable drainage by using GIS mapping to bring together information including landuse, property density, terrain and soil type. These generally focus on identifying locations for source control SuDS – removing surface water from piped drainage systems and infiltrating it into the ground.
I recently saw a Linked in post that took this a step further by including the location of empty or derelict property that could be de-developed to provide flood mitigation opportunities and also improve the local community by getting rid of urban blight. The map (above) suggests that this was mainly considering watercourse flooding, but it could also apply to local surface water flooding.
This reminded me of an article that I wrote about 10 years ago pointing out that sustainable drainage wasn’t just about source control but applied to the whole source-pathway-receptor drainage systems. I called it the “6 REs model” inspired by the reduce-reuse-recycle motto for waste minimisation. I notice that the motto has now also expanded to be 6 REs with the addition of repair, remanufacture and recover. I claim no credit for that.
So what is my 6 REs model?
Principles ■ Surface water management should be compatible with the needs and expectations of the community it serves.
50 | June 2024 |
www.draintraderltd.com
■ The environmental, ecological and amenity benefits of surface water should be maximised including its use to
reduce the urban heat-island effect.
■ Surface water management should consider performance in extreme rainfall.
■ When considering new development or urban regeneration, surface water management should be
addressed at the start of the development process before the site layout is defined.
Source control – reuse and reduce
■ Surface water should be managed at source to mimic the natural water cycle where most runoff infiltrates into the
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