Challenges for the Future: Are Sustainable Drainage Systems Really Sustainable?

Sustainable drainage is truly multi-, cross- and trans-disciplinary, covering such subjects as chemistry and microbiology, policy and governance, archaeology, materials and issues around management. The issue of what promotes the use of SuDS-and what hinders it-has been addressed in many publications over the years and, fortunately, the list of barriers has been shrinking. The future for SuDS could include addressing new and emerging pollutants (NEPs), such as pharmaceuticals, hormones, herbicides and cosmetics. SuDS are still used in the traditionalist sense of primarily a flood risk management solution with the smallest development footprint. The resulting problems are the many ways in which society has manipulated the environment to its detriment and the arrogance of thinking that it could control the impacts. SuDS can be successfully applied worldwide in a variety of different climates and situations, and it can also be combined with conventional, pipe-based systems.