Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) – What it is and where do we stand today?

Uvini Srishantha, Upaka Rathnayake

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Stormwater management is a topic of growing complexity. It includes all measures in mitigating stormwater runoff. Various studies have identified stormwater as a major carrier of various pollutants and other contaminants. The utmost motive behind the implementation of stormwater management strategies is to use a suite of Best Management Practices to reduce sediment load, nutrients and chemical pollutant loads in stormwater before they reach natural watercourses downstream. Mitigation of the flood threat is another objective. Mitigation measures have been implemented in many countries with the same objectives. The relevant factors to be considered when adopting stormwater management measures are the geophysical aspects such as the climate, hydrology, land, soil and topography, law and social factors as well as the technical and economic issues. The world is moving more towards green concepts in mitigating stormwater runoff. Some of these measures are Low Impact Designs, Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SUDS) and Water Sensitive Urban Design. SUDS are more attuned to the green concept. The primary goal of SUDS is to switch from pipe-engineered system to practices and systems that use and enhance natural processes, i.e. infiltration, evapotranspiration, filtration and re-use. While conventional drainage systems focus only on the stormwater quantity, SUDS pay attention to all three aspects of quantity, quality and amenity/biodiversity. These measures have their own advantages and shortcomings. This review targets the present the state of the art of SUDS and its importance in stormwater management.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)235-241
Number of pages7
JournalEngineering and Applied Science Research
Volume44
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Best management practices
  • Green infrastructure
  • Green roofs
  • Stormwater management
  • Sustainable urban drainage systems
  • Urbanization

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