Dales Brow, Swinton

Client: City of Trees
Value: £65,000.00

Sustainable Urban Drainage System, SuDS

Dale’s Brow in Swinton, Manchester has been transformed into a sustainable urban drainage system. This comes with the installation of two swales, the creation of a new 64m² wetland area, a 40m long beech hedge and hundreds of new plants and trees.

Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs) are a collection of water management practices that aim to align modern drainage systems with natural water processes. They alleviate flooding problems by storing or re-using surface water at source, by decreasing flow rates to watercourses and by improving water quality.

Rainwater from the road will be diverted away from the sewers into the swales. With heavy rainfall the water will travel along the swales and into a temporary wetland area. When the swales and wetland area are full, the water will overflow back into the water course via a pipe connection in a clean and safe condition.

The swales and the wetland area contain a variety of different vegetation types that are able to cope with wet conditions. Microbes in the soil and vegetation will trap and help to break down any pollutants into harmless compounds.

The project partnership comprises environmental charity; City of Trees, Salford Council, The Environment Agency, United Utilities and the University of Salford.

The University of Salford will monitor the quantity and quality of surface water entering and exiting the site to determine the amount of water diverted away from the combined sewer and the ability of the sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) features to remove vehicle-based pollutants.

“This project demonstrates that there are natural ways of reducing flooding and cleaning our water, beyond traditional hard engineering solutions. We hope that this type of solution becomes the norm and not the exception.”
Bryan Cosgrove, City of Trees Resilience Coordinator