SUDS

Sustainable and Well-Designed Drainage Strategies

Walsh doesn’t see SUDS as a “bolt on” to drainage design. The Walsh ethos is that a well designed drainage strategy should provide sustainable benefits as well as reducing capital and maintenance costs.  

Our designs are influenced by the principle of “Making Space for Water” and we work with both the Architect and landscape architect to integrate the SUDS seamlessly into the landscape and increase the biodiversity and urban greening factor, thereby providing additional environmental benefits. 

We endeavour to avoid the use of high maintenance underground tanks and promote low maintenance surface level attenuation such as ponds and swales but understand that this is not always feasible and when tanks are required we adopt lean design principles to ensure there is no over provision. 

As one would expect from a practice with innovation as a core value, we are always looking for solutions which add value in a sustainable way and Walsh are also at the forefront of current industry thought leadership. We have sat on CIRIA steering groups providing guidance for blue roofs and take an active role in Thames Water’s Scrutiny Panel.