The Soft Option

摘要

Issues have been raised regarding the hard surfaces of urban areas leading to the accelerated shedding of rainwater into rivers and other surface waters. During periods of heavy rainfall this has been a major contributory factor to flood events in river catchments such as the River Aire in Yorkshire. A number of concepts to mitigate the large volumes of water being drained from hard surfaces have been promoted in the past few years. These range from sustainable drainage systems for roads and car parks to the establishment of green roofs. However, every urban area already has potential buffer zones to reduce the mass flow rate of drainage water. These are parks, football pitches, bowling greens and other general green amenity areas of any modern town or city. Such areas may constitute a large proportion of any urban area; and this is without the consideration of private gardens.