Eric Suesz
Anthony McCloy is the managing director of McCloy Consulting and regularly speaks at conferences and seminars, provides university lectures, delivers national SuDS training workshops and has recently contributed to Ireland’s Rainwater Management Plans: Guidance for Local Authorities.
Does your municipality need an RMP – a Rainwater Management Plan? In the UK, there are lots of examples to follow, but a relatively new document from Ireland stands out for its strong nature-friendly approach. We invited one of the contributors to that document, Managing Director Anthony McCloy of McCloy Consulting, to speak to our drainage design customers and share the knowledge he has built up as a proponent of sustainable engineering systems.
Successful SuDS start with a hydraulic model
In the presentation Leveraging Rainwater Management for Climate Resilience, Anthony was joined by Autodesk Technical Solutions Engineer Rebecca Willey, who began the talk with an overview of one of the most advanced tools used by water engineers in the UK, InfoWorks ICM. Many of our drainage design customers use InfoDrainage because of its focus on sustainable design options, but some customers use our more advanced InfoWorks ICM for this work. It can help you realize extremely accurate analyses of both above- and below-ground networks, which is especially useful when dealing with extremely complex sanitary sewer and stormwater networks that require very deep analysis, all the way up to performing a city-wide analysis.
Anthony continued by diving into a discussion about the climate crisis and the increasing unpredictability of rainfall patterns, emphasizing the need for adaptive strategies and highlighting the importance of embracing nature-based solutions to manage rainwater effectively. He also busted a few myths about SuDS, sharing examples of published advice that simply don’t ring true.
For example, he takes exception with the idea that landscaped SuDS, as opposed to hard-engineered solutions, have a limited ability to handle significant amounts of rain. He believes landscaped SuDS can absolutely be designed to accommodate extreme rainfall. In fact, that’s the challenge presented to designers – to create multifunctional landscapes that work over time, not just install more concrete and bigger pipes to move water away as quickly as possible.
The way drainage designers do this – of course – is by relying on hydraulic models for analysis and validation. A good hydraulic model can help you plot out the most extreme rainfall scenarios so you can see how bad things might get if you don’t perform crucial maintenance – or what would happen if you simply did nothing.
Recruiting natural allies for your SuDS ambitions
In the talk, he points out a few things smart drainage designers can do to find opportunities for SuDS while working on projects for government roads, housing, or parks. He also points out a few excellent natural allies for drainage designers to seek out. Utility companies, rivers trusts, wildlife trusts, and local community groups are all naturally inclined to invest in SuDS solutions, and they are likely to trumpet the results of your work loudly for others to hear. These are the groups you want to get on board to support your RMP.
You can go further when developing your strategies and take advantage of synergies that can come from working in parallel with other nature-friendly strategies, some of which are particular to the UK but which can apply anywhere in the world:
- Can you include Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI)?
- Can you include ecological solutions and focus on creating new habitat?
- Can you hook your wagon to the Active Travel movement in the UK? The greenways and cycling paths that are being created for active travel will need drainage solutions.
The real secret to success? Collaboration and community.
Anthony encourages engineers to not think about their work as simply moving water from point A to point B. Rather, he thinks the real secret to success is working with planners, landscape architects, and ecologists to build multifunctional landscapes that legitimately make communities better. He also believes that community and wildlife benefits are naturally popular at the local level, so drainage designers should tap into their support. Ultimately, you want to ensure all stakeholders receive a clear message that what is being planned won’t just satisfy regulations and building codes – it will genuinely make the community a better place to live.
In the end, Anthony believes drainage designers should always take a long-term wider catchment-based approach. Further, he thinks achieving multiple benefits shouldn’t be an optional “extra” but a clear goal from the beginning, with drainage designers fostering a “design for people and environment first” mindset. After all, the ultimate goal is to open these spaces up and encourage people to use them – not to build gutters that are only useful when it rains.
Is fostering these kinds of best practices easier said than done? Perhaps. But as Anthony points out in the conclusion of his presentation: “It’s not going to be easy, but we promise that it will be worth it.”
That’s a great quote to keep in your back pocket when you need to rally support from the community.
Choosing a stormwater modeling solution
- Download a copy of the Rainwater Management Plans – Guidance for Local Authorities
- Want to see how InfoWorks ICM works with SuDS? Watch Ryan Brown’s Water Drop Workflow video Setting up LIDs, SuDS, or WSUD’s in InfoWorks ICM
- Not sure which of our software is right for you? Read our post Choosing a drainage design solution: InfoDrainage or InfoWorks ICM?
- Learn more about Stormwater modeling with InfoWorks ICM.