Sustainable Urban Drainage: Flood Risk Management and SuDS Design Training Course
1Summary
Every major storm makes headlines for the same reason: drainage systems built for yesterday's rainfall patterns are struggling to cope with today's. As impermeable surfaces spread across expanding cities, the water has to go somewhere — and without a genuine drainage strategy, that "somewhere" is often a flooded road or a damaged building. Sustainable Drainage Systems exist precisely to solve this, by managing rainwater at the source rather than simply pushing it downstream.
This training course walks through what that actually looks like in practice: reading how stormwater behaves before it becomes a problem, applying flood mitigation measures that are proportionate to real risk, and integrating SuDS components into existing urban drainage networks rather than working around them. Water management runs through the whole course as a connecting thread, tying design decisions back to long-term resilience.
Arab British Fellowship Training Academy delivers this Sustainable Urban Drainage: Flood Risk Management and SuDS Design Training Course to build applied SuDS capability for civil and environmental engineers working on today's drainage and flood-risk challenges.
2Objectives and target group
By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:
- Read stormwater behaviour and translate it into real drainage design requirements
- Apply flood mitigation measures within a sustainable drainage strategy
- Design and integrate SuDS components into existing urban drainage networks
- Apply core Sustainable Drainage Systems principles to urban development projects
- Evaluate flood risk and select solutions that fit the site and the budget
- Balance water quantity, quality and amenity within a single water management plan
- Apply the codes and standards that govern SuDS planning, design and management
Who Should Attend
- Water resources engineers working on stormwater and drainage systems
- Local authority and infrastructure engineers responsible for urban drainage
- Civil and environmental engineers involved in drainage and flood risk projects
- Urban planners coordinating drainage requirements with development plans
- Anyone building deeper expertise in Sustainable Drainage Systems
3Course Content
Module 1: Reading the Problem Before Designing the Solution
- The role of Sustainable Drainage Systems in modern urban development
- Understanding stormwater generation and behaviour in urban areas
- Linking SuDS planning to flood risk and water management goals
Module 2: Flood Mitigation Through Design
- Principles of flood mitigation within sustainable drainage design
- Selecting SuDS features that reduce flood risk
- Balancing flood mitigation with other design objectives
Module 3: Designing and Integrating Urban Drainage Networks
- Integrating SuDS into existing urban drainage networks
- Designing components such as swales, basins and permeable surfaces
- Coordinating SuDS design with wider infrastructure planning
Module 4: Managing Water Quantity, Quality and Long-Term Performance
- Principles of sustainable water management in urban environments
- Balancing water quantity, quality and amenity objectives
- Long-term maintenance and performance of SuDS
Module 5: Turning SuDS Plans into Real Projects
- Case studies in SuDS planning and design
- Common flood risk and drainage challenges, and practical solutions
- Lessons learned from real SuDS implementation projects