Supporting the choice, siting and evaluation of sustainable drainage systems in new urban developments

The work presented here forms part of the ongoing WaND research initiative in the UK aiming towards the implementation of sustainability principles in the planning of new urban developments. The paper describes the development of a decision support toolbox based on soft computing that assists the selection of promising sustainable drainage systems (SUDS), and their optimal siting within the context of new urban developments, through the creation of spatially variable suitability maps. It is suggested that the decision support toolbox, which includes the tools presented here as well as other tools developed within WaND can assist engineers and developers to take into account engineering, environmental and socio-economic characteristics and constraints in the design of more sustainable "SUDS" schemes.