Reflections on ‘Floodex UK – The SuDS Theatre’ (2024)
The SuDS Theatre was once again brought to the London ExCel center at this year’s Floodex UK trade show (27th and 28th November). Across two days, 160+ visitors were drawn to the SuDS Theatre for presentations that centered on the question of ‘How SuDS can unlock development’.
Throughout the sessions, recurring themes included:
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SuDS as key interventions to allow for better (and more!) developments, leading to higher value properties, and better places for people and nature.
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The importance of community and multi-disciplinary stakeholder engagement in the delivery of successful SuDS schemes.
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The potential of SuDS interventions for capturing and reusing rainwater at source to improve water security.
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The challenge of maintenance of SuDS to ensure continued delivery of multiple benefits.
The potential for SuDS to create beautiful places, reduce flooding, improve water quality, create better spaces for biodiversity, and reuse water was clearly demonstrated through the case studies presented. However, it was highlighted that there are still too many examples of poorly designed, constructed and maintained SuDS that not only fail to carry out their function, but risk damaging public support for them.
Maintenance and the need for upskilling are critical issues that need to be resolved to ensure continued support for SuDS and the delivery of the multiple benefits they can deliver.
Engagement with local communities and multi-disciplinary stakeholders was identified as crucial to success. Explaining the vision and purpose of the proposed project and listening to the people impacted by the SuDS project as early as possible can ensure buy-in. Other community-led projects in the area (eg energy, food, flood related) and/or organisations working with communities can also provide opportunities to engage in a more meaningful way than via consultations. Engaged communities may then play a role in maintaining the SuDS and sustaining its many benefits.
Speakers were aligned in conveying how SuDS can play a massive role in unlocking high quality and high value developments - an aspect that susdrain is keen on promoting beyond the SuDS community.
Thank you to Sam Briscoe (Stomor Ltd) for being our chair, and to all of our speakers who generously gave up their time to share knowledge and learnings from their experience delivering SuDS.
You can find more information in the presentations below.
susdrain will continue to provide a forum for all those interested in SuDS to come together to have these important conversations that can help support the delivery of high-quality SuDS. There are several ways to get involved, get in touch HERE.