Cleaning water through SuDS

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are becoming a more and more widespread way to provide water back to the environment from urban development in a state that is clean and appropriate for the receiving environment.

The SuDS manual is a technical guide to the development of SuDS, written for practitioners.

It's a long document, so spend some time understanding the philosophy behind SuDS, the opportunity this approach presents and examples of different types of SuDS.

Another useful resource is Susdrain. This provides a repository for much of the guidance and best practice on SuDS design.

Activity: Promoting SuDS

Although SuDS have huge benefits across society and the environment, they are often not favoured by developers as they use larger areas of land than traditionally engineered solutions. You are the environmental lead for the development of a housing project in the UK (or a nation of your choice). With reference to legislation and best practice that you have come across in your reading for this unit, write a clear and firmly worded explanation of why a SuDS system should be incorporated into the design. Include how this can provide benefits to the developer in terms of saleability of the houses and ongoing maintenance requirements.