Sustainable drainage, green and blue infrastructure in urban areas

Flooding is one of the most common disasters occurring across Europe, and with the impacts of climate change is likely to get worse. Approaches such as sustainable drainage systems, or SuDS, utilise blue and green infrastructure such as ponds, wetlands and vegetated devices which provide multiple benefits as well as flood resilience. These benefits include those encapsulated in the SuDS square, of water quality improvements, space for increased biodiversity, and provision of amenity, making the environment for people more pleasant. This chapter discusses the information that is required to design SuDS, whether new-build or retrofit, and gives two contrasting case studies. The first details the development of a decision support tool for the city of Coventry, enabling local authorities to identify where infiltration, detention, engineered and conveyance devices could be sited. The second case study is of the implementation of a SuDS management train in a refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, highlighting the importance of community engagement in its design, construction and maintenance.