Kildare County Council Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) guidelines: helping to ensure that development in Kildare is designed to accommodate increases in stormwater
3 December 2024: Kildare County Council has recently published its new Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) guidelines.
The SuDS guidelines have been prepared to ensure that development across County Kildare is designed to reduce flood risk from stormwater surges, whilst also improving the amenity, biodiversity and placemaking value of Kildare’s towns, villages and urban landscapes. Whether you are planning to design new housing, non-residential or mixed-use developments, or even just a new family home then the Guidance Document is relevant to you.
The preparation of the Guidelines was an action of the County Development Plan. The document establishes a strong vision for implementing excellent SuDS in County Kildare through the planning process and for the lifelong maintenance of SuDS landscapes.
Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are a very important part of the toolkit available to help improve flood resilience, climate adaptability and the built and natural environment. The general approach is to slow down the flow of water towards rivers and streams by improving the ability of developments to absorb water, similar to a sponge. Traditional surface water management involved hard engineered ‘grey’ solutions such as pipes and attenuation tanks to collect and quickly convey rainwater to the sewer network and ultimately the river network. This contributes to flooding and water pollution. Sustainable drainage systems are a way of managing rainfall using more nature-based methods by slowing it down so that sites maintain greenfield runoff rates.
SuDS are a relatively new concept to County Kildare, so it is important that their role, and how to design them learning from best practice, are clearly understood. The guidelines will help those involved in designing the built and natural environment to ensure that they design and integrate great quality SuDS into their development at the earliest possible stages of design formulation. The Guidance document also seeks to assist project developers in ensuring that the SuDS that are incorporated into developments are designed to the highest possible standards. SuDS must be carefully considered in the design of their developments from their initial concept design stage through to ensuring that the right maintenance is in place. SuDS should be a key design consideration in developments.
Examples of SuDS in the public realm include rainwater gardens, swales, permeable surfaces, and ponds. Other systems, which can be incorporated into developments, include green roofs, permeable paving and rainwater harvesting. The guidelines signal a shift away from the provision of functional water storage to a landscape with public spaces that serve amenity and play needs, with small areas being wet most of the time. This approach requires an integrated design team that includes landscape architects, engineers, ecologists and others.
Kildare County Council has begun implementing best practice in SuDS design for Council led projects and will ensure that best practice in SuDS is integrated into the design of all its future projects, including projects that retrofit Kildare’s existing urban areas, neighbourhoods, streets and places to improve their flood resilience and amenity value of public space.
The new Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) guidelines can be found here:
Kildare County Council held a briefing on the new guidelines June 2024, with participation from more than 120 built environment professionals from County Kildare and across Ireland. This clearly demonstrates that County Kildare is leading the way in its commitment to ensuring excellent SuDS projects.
