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The Drain London Partnership

The Drain London Partnership was set up in 2010 with funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The work programme was managed by the Drain London Board, which was chaired by City Hall and includes representatives from:

  • Thames Water
  • Environment Agency
  • London Councils.

The Drain London partnership aimed to:

  • improve our knowledge of the surface water drainage system
  • identify areas most at risk of flooding
  • find ways to reduce flood risk.

Drain London has supported some important and innovative work on surface water flood risk and sustainable drainage. This is split into two main categories: projects and data.

Projects

The Drain London Partnership has helped fund several sustainable drainage projects. these include five SuDS retrofit projects across London. These good practice projects have shown how SuDS retrofit can be cost-effective, can improve the way an area looks, and be great for wildlife.

Find out more about the projects and lessons learned:

Data

An important part of dealing with flood risk and water quality is knowing where the risks are highest, which SuDS measures are likely to be most cost-effective, and where SuDS project have already been installed. The Drain London Partnership has helped fund several data projects to find out just that.

  1. Drain London funded flood risk modelling to help the Boroughs better understand risks in their area. This has informed the Boroughs' Surface Water Management Plans, which help manage and reduce those risks.
  2. The development of the London Strategic SuDS Pilot Study (LSSPS). The intention is to evaluate the benefits of small retrofit sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) features dispersed across a catchment, referred to as ‘Distributed SuDS’.
  3. The Suds Retrofit map shows locations of SuDS in the highways, parks and other areas. Boroughs have inputted into the map and will be kept up to date once new SuDS are added over time.

Policy and plans

The London Plan has a sustainable drainage policy that new developments must follow. But each year, this will only affect 0.5 per cent of London's area. That's why we've produced the London Sustainable Drainage Action Plan.

To make a real difference, we need to add sustainable drainage measures to existing buildings and transport routes (SuDS retrofit). The aim of the London Sustainable Drainage Action Plan is for all future building, maintenance, repair and improvement works to think about including sustainable drainage measures as part of normal working practice.

Over time, many of these small-scale actions can bring about a big difference in surface water flood risk and water quality. To achieve this, the Action Plan provides actions tailored to each of the main land-use sectors in London, such as education, retail, housing and transport.

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