Kildare County Council publishes Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) Guidelines

1st May 2024: Kildare County Council has published its new Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) guidelines.  Kildare County Council is confident that the quality of the built and natural environment will benefit from the implementation of these new guidelines.

SuDS are relatively new to County Kildare so it’s important that their role and how to design them learning from best practice are clearly understood.

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are a very important part of the toolkit available to help improve flood resilience, climate adaptability, built environment and natural environment. 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 and do not contribute to flooding downstream, whilst making significant improvements to amenity, landscape, biodiversity and placemaking. Examples of SuDS in the public realm include rainwater gardens, swales, and ponds. Other systems, which can be incorporated into developments, include green roofs, permeable paving and rainwater harvesting.

The preparation of the Guidelines was an action of the newly adopted 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. The Guidance Document seeks to assist project developers in ensuring that the SuDS that are incorporated into developments are designed to the highest possible standards. SuDS need to be carefully considered in the design of their developments all the way from concept design stage through to ensuring that the right maintenance is in place.

The new Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) guidelines are available to view online – https://kildarecoco.ie/AllServices/Planning/DevelopmentGuidelines/

Kildare County Council has already started applying best practice in SuDS design to its own Parks projects and will ensure that best practice in SuDS is integrated into the design of all its 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.