Wetlands and Sustainable Drainage

While Chapter 2 focused on wetland systems for pollution control, this chapter concentrates on the combination of wetlands with sustainable drainage and flood control technology and planning. Particularly large retention basins, detention tanks, and alternative concepts for sustainable drainage are assessed. Section 4.1 introduces a rapid assessment methodology for the survey of water bodies including large wetland systems such as sustainable flood retention basins (SFRB). This novel and timely SFRB concept is funded and promoted by the European Union. Moreover, Section 4.2 provides a classification example for different Scottish SFRB, highlighting the dominance of current and former potable water supply reservoirs. Section 4.3 summarizes a new sustainable (urban) drainage system (SUDS); i.e., a combined wetland and detention system. This SUDS technique could be combined with SFRB. Finally, Section 4.4 introduces the novel concept of integrating trees into SUDS design. The section shows that trees have the potential to reduce runoff volumes via retention, evapotranspiration, and interception, highlighting missed opportunities in traditional drainage design.