Green integration unlocks future of catchment flood resilience

• New irrigation technologies deliver volumetric and biodiversity net-gain benefits.
• Polypipe partners NCE to deliver breakthrough Future of Floods 2020

Mitigating the threat of flooding by combining green assets and Big Data on a catchment-wide scale will be one of the headline topics at this year’s NCE Future of Floods Conference on the 19^th November.  Sponsored by Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation, the virtual, free to attend event coincides with a number of significant advances in irrigation and monitoring technologies that mark a step change in how government, water companies and planning authorities can work together to defend communities against flooding while delivering biodiversity net-gain development and increasing climate change resilience.

“Conventional SuDS primarily focus on dealing with the issue of surface water volume, overlooking the significant value that can be unlocked from re-using stored water to sustain high environmental return assets such as trees and native species landscaping,” says Sean Robinson, Specification Director at Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation.  “At this year’s conference there will be a series of case studies demonstrating how, by fully integrating green assets into water management networks using new techniques such as passive irrigation, storage capacity can not only be significantly increased but a whole range of wider benefits can be introduced that offset the impacts of climate change and increased urban population density.”

Unique wicking cones, which are partially immersed in the stored water, draw water up to the sub-soil where it supports, protects and contains root systems allowing planting from straight forward grassed areas to fully mature trees across roofs, podiums and public spaces where not previously possible.  This breakthrough sub-base replacement technology protects green areas during periods of drought, reduces potable water demand during hot weather and enhances biodiversity by maintaining flora in optimum growing conditions. 

The ability to store and re-use water in greater volumes across the built environment will be vital in helping developers achieve the Biodiversity Net-Gain (BNG) requirements of the updated Environment bill expected next year.  An important change to planning regulations, all new developments will have to deliver a minimum 10% uplift in biodiversity from its pre-build level. 

“The process of linking attenuated water to green assets to realise greater resilience is called ‘Green Urbanisation’ and lies at the heart of a new generation of innovative sustainable drainage solutions,” says Sean Robinson.  “Infinitely scalable, the Green Urbanisation approach can be adapted to operate on a single plot or across an entire river catchment enabling a new level of flood management.”

Intelligent systems can be incorporated to automatically monitor and manage rainwater volumes in conjunction with weather forecasting data.  By tracking storms, attenuated volumes across a wide area can be discharged well ahead of the event, preventing the network being overwhelmed and reducing the flood potential.

Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation is this year’s headline sponsor of the NCE’s Future of Floods event. To learn more about Green Urbanisation techniques and technologies, register for the free Future of Floods event here.