THE INTERACTION BETWEEN WATER AND SOCIETY: A new approach to sustainable stormwater management

摘要

The introduction of the concept of sustainable stormwater drainage has led to a new approach in which stormwater drainage is no longer looked upon just as a technical service that is supplied by the city's Drainage Department. Stormwater has become a positive resource in the urban environment for the citizens. Under such circumstances, many city departments must take more active part in the stormwater management planning. A close co-operation among the different technical departments in the city and an active involvement of the public has proved to be of utmost importance for a successful implementation of the concept of sustainable stormwater management. This integrated approach (Model B) is much more complex and time-consuming than the traditional approach to stormwater planning (Model A). Many cities tend to continue to use the traditional approach (Model A) for planning sustainable stormwater solutions. As this approach is not very well suited for planning stormwater solutions, which are closely interacting with the societal processes in the urban environment, the result will often be unsuccessful. For planning sustainable stormwater systems one should apply Interactive Implementation (Model B).