Beyond stormwater to create resilient communities

To get a full understanding of this challenge, it’s essential to think bigger and wider and go beyond water. For example, just by exploring the question of “in the future, how will we travel?” one might start to envision an environment for stormwater management that looks very different from today, and which might alter the actions taken now. For example, technology advancement...

How might these enablers be brought together? Four overarching elements are likely to be key: integration, connection, resilience, and context. Water and wastewater operators should ask:

Infrastructure systems are siloed, especially within water. The quicker the water sector begins to consider other systems’ plans, programs, and their effects, the sooner opportunities to radically change what is achievable arise. For example, the future transportation of people and goods will create the opportunity of space – a key challenge in managing stormwater. If energy creation...

Recently in the United Kingdom, stormwater and wastewater management long-term planning has gained a more formal footing, through Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans.

A slow move to distributed systems, like with energy, is already underway. But there is a long way to go before stormwater is widely distributed and viewed as a resource to be treated and managed on a local level, removing the reliance on buried infrastructure and end-of-pipe solutions. Digitization, social mobilization, and good governance will all be crucial to a resilient future in water.

To achieve the goals of connecting systems, integration, and creating resilience, it is necessary to recognize that different strategies and tactics to maximize opportunities are necessary. If these opportunities are missed, they may disappear or be locked away for decades or even centuries – something communities can ill afford financially, socially, or environmentally.

So, does the water sector have the foresight, creativity, and inventive capability to meet these challenges? Yes. The water sector is on the edge of a transformation in which layered systems can become interconnected. This will change how water, wastewater, and stormwater systems are planned, built, and maintained. In the future, water will no longer be in isolation but will work through...

Professor Chris Digman, an expert and recognized technical leader in urban drainage, specializes in wastewater and stormwater management, sustainable drainage, flood risk management, pollution control, and sewer solid movement. Based in Leeds in the UK, Chris has significantly influenced stormwater management practices in the UK and beyond. He has written industry-leading guidance, which...