Retrofitting to manage surface water

New guidance on how to fit equipment to manage surface water in built-up areas.

• From: Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme and Environment Agency
• Published: 22 February 2021

• Category: Environmental management and sustainability
• Topics: Community response and resilience, Design and build, Resilient infrastructure, Spatial planning and Surface water
  Show 3 more
  Sustainability, Sustainable drainage systems, and Understanding physical processes
• Project status: Completed
• Project code: SC080052
• Date of completion: 31 July 2013

Documents

Retrofitting to manage surface water

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email: [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

This approach involves integrating the principles of urban design with surface water management to move away from the traditional approach of using an underground system of pipes. It uses instead a wide range of surface water management methods both above and below ground. This offers many benefits, including:

• improving amenity
• increasing biodiversity
• enhancing land value

Under this new approach, no space is considered useless. There are many opportunities to retrofit measures if conventional thinking is challenged and an innovative approach is adopted in public and private areas of towns and cities. For example, space can be maximised to have more than one function, and measures that mimic natural drainage processes can be introduced. The new approach becomes easier if a range of professions work closely together to provide joint solutions, and all interested parties are involved early on in the process.

This project was started in January 2009 and completed in July 2013.

Published 22 February 2021