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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Water and Wastewater Management
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1524239
This article is part of the Research Topic Sustainable Water Use and Management in Urban Areas View all 3 articles

Converting infiltration swales to sustainable urban drainage systems can improve water management and biodiversity

Provisionally accepted
Brigitte Helmreich Brigitte Helmreich 1*Maha Deeb Maha Deeb 2Patrizia Eben Patrizia Eben 1Monika Egerer Monika Egerer 1Johannes Kollmann Johannes Kollmann 1Stefanie Schulz Stefanie Schulz 3Stephan Pauleit Stephan Pauleit 1Wolfgang W Weisser Wolfgang W Weisser 1Michael Schloter Michael Schloter 1
  • 1 Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
  • 2 High School of Landscape Engineering and Architecture, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 3 Helmholtz Center München, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Neuherberg, Bavaria, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) are ecosystems that are based on engineered soil and designed plant communities to manage stormwater on-site and to enhance infiltration, evapotranspiration, and cooling, thus reducing flooding and urban heat islands. In addition, SUDS may act as hotspots for biodiversity and could be more socially accepted if they work well and are multifunctional. However, we still lack a critical understanding of the techno-ecological basis to construct SUDS sustainably. Due to climate change and pollutants such as de-icing salts, SUDS are confronted with harmful environmental triggers that interfere with their sustainable development. Thus, the challenge is to combine stormwater treatment and urban drainage with principles of restoration ecology, while implementing expertise from soil science, microbiome research, and plant ecology. In this perspective paper, we will discuss the SUDS development and maintenance principle and the role of interdisciplinary research in reaching these goals.

    Keywords: ecosystem service, Engineered substrate, microbiome, multifunctionality, Plant communities, stormwater, urban environment

    Received: 08 Nov 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Helmreich, Deeb, Eben, Egerer, Kollmann, Schulz, Pauleit, Weisser and Schloter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Brigitte Helmreich, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.