Engineers called to urgently include sustainable design features in water projects

Water engineers need to put sustainable design features into their projects now, not when they’re forced to, sector experts have said.

Speaking at the ICE/Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) flooding and water quality conference, water experts called for the industry to take action to address the urgent challenges caused by climate change. 

Rachel Glossop, flood risk planning manager at Hull City Council, urged attendees to stop waiting for legislation to enforce good design choices like sustainable urban drainage solutions.

“Stop waiting for the stick and go for the carrot,” she said, adding that infrastructure engineers need to advocate for these decisions as value added, rather than an extra cost.

“We have to make sure that, as practitioners, we make what we’re doing more appealing to communities,” she said.

Why is bold action needed?

CIWEM president John Curtin reminded attendees that only 18 months remain of the world’s carbon budget to keep us below the 1.5C limit for preventing global climate catastrophe.

Yet the industry spends too long discussing fine details rather than making bold, big picture decisions, said Richard Jackson, coastal change manager at East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

“We’ve all spent far too long talking about colours on maps,” he said, in a discussion on failures to adequately support communities facing the effects of rising sea levels.

Don’t be afraid to innovate

Speakers encouraged the industry to pursue innovative projects, such as integrating data for more efficient parametric (using parameters instead of dimensions) modelling and creating strategic partnerships to speed up delivery.

They also looked at how the industry can embrace AI models and new data techniques to enhance projects and support communities facing water challenges.

Project leaders from Sheffield University and Northumbrian Water also advised people to not view feedback on their projects as a hurdle.

The project team built the Pipebot Patrol, a robot that autonomously identifies and clears blockages in sewage pipes before they become a problem.

They shared examples of questions they received from stakeholders when pitching the device.

People should use the questions to ensure they had accounted for these issues in their designs rather than taking the concerns as a sign to stop, they said.

The Yorkshire Storm Alliance also presented the scheme’s success bringing together partners from each stage of the project delivery process to remove barriers and encourage collaboration.

They created a shared vision for reducing combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharge into rivers and incentivised collaboration through shared objectives that require all partners to contribute.

The scheme has seen barriers effectively removed to streamline and speed up CSO discharge reduction in Yorkshire.

Individuals have a role to play too

Not only can the individual person have their life uprooted by major flood events or erosion, but individuals can play a vital role in preventing flood disasters, said CIWEM’s Curtin.

While 1 in 10 Brits have a zombie apocalypse plan, only 6% have a flood plan and 35% of households surveyed admitted that they would have no idea what to do in a major flood event.

Speakers said that it was important that the public sees flooding as a shared responsibility with organisations – not the sole responsibility of local governments.

They also said that the role of engineers was to work with communities to give them ownership of their responsibilities regarding flooding, water quality, and coastal erosion, to encourage community buy-in.

For example, Northumbrian Water noted the impact individuals can have by simply clearing leaves from drains or checking the items they flush into the system.

The 4th annual ICE/CIWEM Yorkshire and Humber flooding and water quality conference was held in Leeds and sponsored by Jacobs and Mott MacDonald.