Sustainable urban drainage systems: a tool to adapt combined sewer systems to climate change

Climate change is a big challenge that may affect water and sanitation services. The authors studied a strategy to adapt current infrastructure to adverse effects due to climate change, such as more frequent and heavier rainfall, through sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS). A part of the sewer network of Santander, in Spain, is taken as a case study. After building the model under the SWMM-5 code, some scenarios were simulated, including short-duration storm analysis, under the current climate and with climate change estimation, for an extended period simulation. The same analysis was performed adding SUDS. Peak flow, energy consumption reductions and the total storm water volume disconnected were measured. Every action had a positive effect in adapting the existing infrastructure to climate change, but the authors observed that when SUDS worked together, the benefits were greater, as expected. Any future intervention might be focused on encouraging SUDS as a drainage solution, not as isolated pilot projects.