International Conference on Urban Drainage (ICUD) 2014, <b>Kuching</b> <b>...</b>

Posted: 25 Sep 2014 12:33 AM PDT

A photograph of Lan, Deonie and Dick at the ICUD 2014

September 25, 2014, by blue-greencities

To be in a room filled with like-minded, enthusiastic, interested researchers here just to discuss SuDS (sustainable urban drainage systems), WSUD (water sensitive urban design) and urban drainage was a privilege

During 5 days over 500 urban drainage specialists delved into the details, dynamics, processes, implications, consequences and benefits of WSUD and integrated urban water management at the International Conference on Urban Drainage (ICUD) in Kuching, Malaysia. The conference themes ran from sewer system processes through to integrated modelling and public perception – incorporating sessions on urban water pollution, climate change, rainwater harvesting and water scarcity.

The congress gave a forum for advances and novel research findings to be presented. Models such as the newly released and publicly available 'SwaleMod' (from North Carolina University Stormwater Engineering Group), which allows users to "tailor" swale design to specific water quality goals, while still conveying needed flows, and UrbanBEATS (Urban Biophysical Environments and Technologies Simulator, Monash University), an exploratory model for planning urban water futures, were presented alongside research on cocaine tracing in urban sewers, edible green roof heavy metal uptake and achievable pollutant removal of floating wetlands in stormwater receiving waterbody treatment.

Prof. David Butler's (University of Exeter) keynote address was very poignant, discussing 'Reliable, Resilient and Sustainable urban drainage'. He presented the Safe and SuRE pyramid and discussed the Safe and SuRE building block formation: resilience is built on safe and reliable urban drainage, and that sustainability requires resilience as its foundation.

Understanding this sequencing and terminology we can move to adopt a Safe and SuRE framework of mitigate, adapt, cope and learn as a proactive and evolutionary activity of Blue-Green urban design.

The conference also saw the revitalisation of the International WSUD Working group, led by Dr Megan Farrelly, Dr Briony Rogers and supported by Dr James Shucksmith (see the website link coming soon on the Blue-Green Cities network page).