Wavin’s Martin Lambley, global product manager for urban climate resilience, discusses the need for effective, long-term water management and the strong consensus that grey infrastructure still has a huge role to play in a green step towards real-world urban climate resilience
With the country’s worsening weather and climate conditions making more headlines than ever, how much thought is being put into defending the built environment?
In my view, we need a new strategy for urban climate resilience.
Driving impactful change remains the goal for Wavin and with this in mind, it brought together some of the brightest minds in the sector for its See Water Differently event, a unique panel discussion held in the heart of London earlier this year.
The wide-ranging conversation from key industry names such as Thames Water, Jacobs and experts from the world of academia, laid bare the challenge of redefining our relationship with water on such a large scale – recognising how green infrastructure is the gold standard when it comes to closing the water loop.
The blue-green vision
Green solutions have undoubtedly been the most promising development in how we understand, manage and store water in recent years.
However, one way to critically enhance a green strategy and make it more efficient to handle large volumes of water, in instances of flash flooding, is to also incorporate a blue element. A blue-green strategy would combine green elements such as trees, plants and soil with an attenuation or infiltration solution.
The advantages of a collaborative approach are clear, including effective drainage for urban areas which, thanks to green elements, provide greener spaces for residents or locals to enjoy.
On top of this, the combination also supports biodiversity efforts and positively influences the health and wellbeing of urban residents.
The potential of grey infrastructure
While it’s right for green infrastructure to take the lead in closing the water loop, engineered, or grey, infrastructure has a crucial role to play in guaranteeing the safe movement and management of surface-level water from densely populated urban areas.
Essentially, a combination of green and grey infrastructure is the key to guaranteeing a more resilient, prosperous urban environment. Through a hybrid approach, green infrastructure can be used to take the pressure off our grey systems.
For example, our ageing sewer network, through a hybrid approach, adds an extra layer of protection that slows surface water down before it overwhelms drainage infrastructure.
This relationship also works the other way, with grey elements used to feed green interventions – surface water is the perfect resource for keeping humanmade natural SuDS such as raingardens, wetlands and ponds healthy.
Speaking at the See Water Differently event, Dr James Webber of the University of Exeter said: “Green systems are not a panacea to solve all problems; it’s unreasonable to expect adding green infrastructure to take all the load of extreme rainfall events. But we know that green solutions should play an important role in managing our everyday rainfall and can really complement grey systems by accommodating some of the pressures created by the climate, growing populations and an ageing asset base.”
Making UCR a reality
As we look towards the future, it’s clear that a strategic hybrid approach is becoming the optimal choice to truly deliver on climate resilience in urban areas. Enhanced collaboration at the local and regional levels, between authorities and water companies, will be critical to the success.
At Wavin, we are committed to fostering collaboration within the industry. Following our panel discussion, See Water Differently, we’ve published a white paper with key findings to explore these complex issues.
As a next step, we are also partnering with the Chartered Institute of Water & Environmental Management (CIWEM) to develop the recommendations raised and create action plans for future surface water management.
