Sustainable Urban Drainage Infrastructure

Water is one of the most important resources, essential for all life forms. From the perspective of sustainable development there are three important challenges: water availability, water purity, and infrastructure, especially in cities. In this last case the problem is not only with water supply, but also with water runoff. Conventional pipe and curb systems, with their efficient ability to convey runoff rapidly to receiving waters, do not take into consideration these effects and new approaches have been developed in recent years to address these concerns. There is a growing trend towards managing water in a more sustainable way by activating its natural behaviors and process in the urban environment. Control and management near the source is now being promoted intensively and it is viewed in many countries as comprising an appropriate suite of techniques facilitating the similarity of natural processes and minimizing the hydrologic impacts. Such solutions rely on local treatment, retention, re-use, infiltration and conveyance of water runoff in urban areas and thus are in better agreement with sustainable development programme. The paper presents discussion about perspective development of urban drainage systems and a case study of successful implementation of decentralized stormwater system in Augustenborg (Malmö).