Innovation
The policy and guidance from central government to local councils in regards the need for more accommodation to house our growing population with the use of brownfield sites in city centres being a high priority, presents real challenges in development with developable areas limited. Furthermore, the guidance on development is also to create a more sustainable scheme with emphasis on surface water management, biodiversity and ecological enhancement.
Therefore, to maximise development in urban city centre locations in which to create commercially viable schemes, developers have no option but to create a building floor plate, covering a large extent of the site as part of a high-rise building development to generate the number of residential dwellings needed. This approach to development provides limited external areas associated with the development, which for us as Civil Engineers who are tasked to design a sustainable drainage system to accommodate the surface water management for the scheme, provides a real challenge.
Beckwith & Hanlon’s involvement and experience on a number of similar developments to that explained above, has resulted in the team exploring and implementing unique ‘on-building’ SUDS features in which to address attenuation, water quality mitigation, reduction in surface water run-off, biodiversity and ecological enhancement. These unique features and approach to sustainable drainage includes the use of green roofs, blue roofs, rainwater harvesting, grey water recycling systems, rainwater planters, permeable paving etc.