News

29Apr

CIRIA launches outputs to support the uptake of designing for exceedance

Drainage systems in our urban areas may flood from time to time and reducing this impact may require us to manage excess water on the surface through designing for exceedance.

This can be achieved by creating safe and resilient flood routes, temporary storage areas and making use of other measures to reduce the impact of flooding.


In 2006 CIRIA published guidance document Designing for exceedance in urban drainage – good practice (C635). In 2013, through Research Project RP991 Managing urban flooding from heavy rainfall – encouraging the uptake of designing for exceedance, we investigated the reasons why uptake has been slow.

The project ostensibly funded by the Environment Agency with additional support from Wessex Water produced outputs that capture learning from consultation with stakeholders, an extensive literature review.

The outputs are included in CIRIA publication Managing urban flooding from heavy rainfall - encouraging the uptake of designing for exceedance (C738), which presents lessons learnt and recommendations to help support the uptake of designing for exceedance.

C738 is available from www.susdrain.org and includes:

Further outputs, including presentations and videos from a related seminar and discussions with practitioners on the importance of designing for exceedance will be available on susdrain in the coming months.

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