Since April 2015, SuDS have been a statutory requirement for all major development planning applications in England. Aside from the statutory requirement, there are many benefits to using SuDS within development sites in Somerset.
Benefits of using SuDS
Create attractive places to live
- SuDS and blue-green infrastructure can make developments more attractive places to live.
- Contribute to place-making and 'greening' urban areas
- Create spaces for the community
- Increase premiums on property values close to SuDS features.
Create sustainable and climate resilient places
- Integrated water management is a critical part of making developments more sustainable and climate resilient.
- Reduce drinking water demand.
- Increase flood resilience, drought resilience and urban cooling.
- CIRIA's 'Delivering better water management through the planning system' gives a good overview of an integrated water management approach.
Reduce flood risk and damage
- SuDS can reduce flood risk and damage to property, both on-site (e.g. surface water flow paths and ponding on the site itself) and off-site (e.g. by reducing flood risk to communities downstream).
Good value and easy to maintain
- Well designed SuDS are cheaper and easier to maintain than 'traditional' drainage.
- Save management costs, as maintenance can be carried out as part of standard landscape contracts
- Cheaper to install and maintain than pipes and tanks, which need deep excavations
- Options for small scale measures maintained by individual homeowners - rain gardens, water butts, permeable driveways
Improve health and wellbeing
- SuDS can play a large part in the health and well-being of communities.
- Provide green spaces which benefit mental health
- Promote physical fitness and health
- Provide areas of convalescence (for example, in hospitals and care homes)
- Further useful information can be found in the Designing blue-green infrastructure for water management, human health and wellbeing report by Sheffield University.
Provide habitats for wildlife
- SuDS can contribute to providing habitats and improvements in biodiversity on development sites. This contributes to meeting Defra's requirements for biodiversity net gain following the Good practice principles for development.
- Provide habitats for protected species in Somerset e.g. the European Otter and Great Crested Newt, and help to create Nature Recovery Networks and restore nature in Somerset.
- Further useful information can be found in the Maximising the Ecological Benefits of SuDS and the RSPB SuDS guidance.
Improve air and water quality
- SuDS can help to meet local and national water and air quality targets.
- Improve water quality and meet nutrient neutrality requirements in environmentally designated sites (BAP/Ramsar/SAC/SSSI), e.g. the Somerset Levels and Moors.
- Improve air quality in towns with high pollution levels e.g. Yeovil and Taunton.
- Contribute to Water Framework Directive (WFD) targets required by Natural England and the Environment Agency.
Resource for play and learning
- SuDS are an excellent opportunity for play and outdoor educational activities
- SuDS can be incorporated into new schools and retrofitted during renovations
- Opportunities for education around the water cycle, flooding and ecology
- Multi-functional SuDS may include inventive ways of using rainwater in playground designs
- Useful information can be found in Play with Rainwater and Sustainable Drainage, and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust SuDS for Schools project.
Improve quality of planning applications
- Integrating SuDS into new developments, alongside green infrastructure requirements, can provide better quality planning applications.
- Ensure local and national planning policy requirements are met.
- Avoid delays in the planning process and reduce risk of drainage systems needing re-design at a late stage.
- Use multi-functional features to meet several planning policy requirements at once (e.g. biodiversity, amenity, green infrastructure, flood risk, drainage).