News story

Multiple benefit Sustainable Drainage Systems

Report published. Recommendations to update the non-statutory technical standards to provide for multiple benefit Sustainable Drainage Systems in England.

• From: Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme
• Published: 8 June 2021

Overview

The project investigated whether updating the current non-statutory technical standards could help provide for multiple benefit Sustainable Drainage Systems, and if so, what those updates might be. Based on the findings, recommendations are made to replace the current standards 1 to 6 with a new suite of standards. The new standards would cover the following:

• Standard 1: Runoff destinations
• Standard 2: Everyday rainfall
• Standard 3: Extreme rainfall
• Standard 4: Water quality
• Standard 5: Amenity
• Standard 6: Biodiversity

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will use this research to inform its drainage policy development.

Documents

The report can be accessed on Defra’s science search page.

Published 8 June 2021