• About us
• Air
• Climate change
• Flooding
• Land
• Planning
• Radioactive substances
• Waste
• Water
• Bathing waters
• Diffuse pollution
• Hydropower
• Marine Science
• Monitoring and classification
• Protected areas
• Restoration fund
• River basin planning
• River levels
• Water regulation
• Timetable for Scotland
• Regimes
• Abstraction
• Aquaculture
• Engineering
• Groundwater
• Impoundment
• Pollution control
• SUDS
• SUDS Working Party
• SUDS explained
• Training, research & guidance
• Oil storage
• Data Returns
• Charging scheme
• CAR Application forms
• Guidance
• Advertised applications
• Water publications
• External links
• Science and research
• Customer information...
• SEPA Kids

SUDS working party

What is the SUDS working party?

The SUDS working party is a group of stakeholders who meet regularly to discuss key issues relating to Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS).

The group comprises representatives from:

• Homes for Scotland
• Landscape Institute Scotland
• Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS)
• Scottish Enterprise
• Scottish Government
• Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS)
• Scottish Water
• Society of Chief Officers for Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS) 
• SEPA

History and formation

After the introduction of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) to Scotland through the Forth River Purification Board, it became clear that national promotion of the concept was necessary to raise the profile of sustainable drainage. At this time SEPA was established and the formation of the SUDS working party was driven by SEPA to involve other key stakeholders.

The need for planners’ involvement, both at a national and local level was realised together with the obvious requirement of drainage authority (at the time of formation there were three in east, west and north of Scotland) involvement.

One target area for addressing surface drainage problems was roads. Very large areas of hardstanding with many watercourse crossings and a direct source of pollution means that any road has the potential to be a risk to the environment. Again involvement at national level with the Scottish Government sees (the now re-titled) Transport Scotland as stakeholders.

During 1997, the SUDS working party was established and had their initial series of meetings to take SUDS forward and promote the use of sustainable drainage.

An obvious need was to establish recognised guidance for practitioners to use. Through collaboration with CIRIA  (Construction Industry Research & Information Association) the design guide 'Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems design manual for Scotland & Northern Ireland' was published in 2000. This document has now been superseded by the new 'SUDS Manual (C697)' and can be downloaded free from the CIRIA website .

Since then progress in encouraging the use of SUDS resulted in the SUDS being the legally required norm to drain surface run-off from all new developments constructed after 1 April 2006.

• SUDS Working Party Members Area 

Who is SUDSWP