Development OR Nature: Why not Both?

Co-authored by Dr Jessica Fox and Rob Beardsworth.

It is more important now than ever before that our built environment professions protect and enhance the natural world by working with the natural environment as best we can, for biodiversity and, not least, to build resilience to the increasing climatic risks we face.

The ongoing pandemic has really made us all stop and think about many aspects of our lives. One of the few places we’ve been able to visit during the many lockdowns have been our local green spaces – some of us have visited them for the first time, or for some it has made us reconnect and appreciate the value of the natural environment. Going forward, there is real hope that we continue to value and connect with the natural environment and don’t lose sight of why it is so important.

Over the last few decades people have started to listen to the scientists and realise that the climate emergency is a problem for everyone and we all need to play a part in protecting the planet if we want a chance to sustain our livelihoods. In some ways we’ve already started to do this, for example, the uptake of micro-renewables for on-site energy generation has become more popular. However, the risk of flooding is very high yet is still somewhat marginalised or at best considered as an inconvenience, unlikely to strike twice. Why is this?

In urban areas the risk of surface water flooding is increasing and we are running out of space to store water, which until recently, was largely hidden in underground storage tanks. Our perception of seeing water within our communities is outdated and, thanks to increasing high-rainfall events as a result of climate change, we are going to have to get used to seeing more water above ground. If we plan correctly, we can try to make sure water is stored where we want it to go rather than in people’s homes. Now is the time for a major social change in the perception of water and flooding.

It has become increasingly clear to many that we cannot take much more space from nature. When it rains, water needs somewhere to go. We cannot define how much water is allowed to fall on us, but we can have an influence on the capacity for storing water on the surface. This is where we can look to nature based solutions for help.

In the past sustainable drainage solutions (SuDS) have been looked at for urban areas and natural flood management (NFM) has been considered for rural areas. However, these are now becoming one and the same, which is a step in the right direction, but what we really need is for it to be considered the new normal. How do we make this change? SuDS or NFM aren’t just about flooding as the name NFM suggests. These types of solutions can be viewed by 4 pillars:

• Water quantity
• Water quality
• Amenity
• Biodiversity benefits

Whether we want to talk about health and well-being, flood risk or saving the bees; SuDS and NFM measures are a key player in delivering sustainable solutions for multiple benefits. It seems obvious that we should have SuDS or NFM measures everywhere, so why don’t we?

The Potential for Nature Based Solutions is Exponential – So What’s the Problem?

NFM should be an integral part of sustainable development. It plays a key role in storing surface water, which is one step closer to addressing and combatting the growing risk of flooding. So what’s the problem?

The first problem is that unfortunately NFM is not often considered at the early design stages of a new development. This means that when developers are seeking planning permission, which include a Drainage Impact Assessment in areas at high flood risk, SuDS measures are too often added as an afterthought at the behest of local authorities and are not incorporated properly into a scheme’s design but rather as a stand-alone feature. This is not ideal and could significantly limit the functionality and performance of the measure, sometimes making it a moot point.

The next problem we have is that whilst planners and design teams are keen to provide innovative NFM and SuDS designs for new developments, these designs are not taken to the build stage. This could be because the contractors often lack knowledge and expertise in implementation and do not want to take on the liability. For a successful and sustainable long term scheme, measures need to be incorporated into new designs at the very beginning so that they are designed into developments rather than apart from. Equally important is to ensure there is both the necessary funding and skills to install, maintain and, if required, fix or update NFM measures.

These nature based measures are one way for us to essentially build nature into new designs or retrofit into existing developments. This is so important when we as a society need more space to live but nature is clearly telling us it needs more space too. NFM and SuDS work by letting nature do its thing, and although this may sound contradictory, we have the opportunity to engineer nature in a way that suits us and benefits nature at the same time. In the past contractors were asked to carry out either an engineered scheme OR an environmental one. But now we are seeing more ‘engineered environmental schemes’ being desired. But these come with challenges.

What we definitely don’t want to see are measures like bioswales being delivered as concrete storage areas that are missing the fundamental characteristics like soils and vegetation to help absorb water and deliver multiple benefits. What we do want to see are carefully designed schemes that are capable of capturing and storing water in a managed way whilst maintaining the natural features.

There isn’t a one way fits all with nature based solutions; the generic factors of each measure can be easily adapted but the finer details need to be bespoke to its location. How do we know the ‘right’ way to engineer these natural solutions? How can we be assured that we won’t in fact make the flood risk worse by installing these measures? It is not a given that engineers or other contractors are experts in local drainage but to start with we need contractors that can install these measures correctly. This is a learning curve for all of us and the only way we will learn is by trying. We can’t wait and just see what happens or wait for someone else to deal with it.

Is this a New Problem?

Flooding is not a new problem. People and communities have been attracted to living near water for generations. Until recently, it was standard to build underground storage tanks to store excess surface water. However, space is running out. The population in England and globally has more than doubled in the past 50 years so the space taken up by people has massively increased while the space for nature has been squeezed.

This is a major concern, especially when thinking about flood risk. If we restrict the space nature needs then our exposure and hence risk of being impacted by flooding increases. Sir David Attenborough has told us we need to rewild the planet to save it. There is no us without a balanced and sustainable Earth. But there can be a thriving Earth without us, so our only option is very clear: stop fighting and destroying nature and learn to live with it.

Can we Continue to Build and be at one with Nature?

Traditionally, developments have been focused largely on buildings and hard surfaces, whether that be homes or businesses and the roads that serve them. There is a real opportunity for developers who are prepared to maximise the multiple benefits of working with nature to create schemes that treat buildings and the surrounding land holistically.

Looking ahead, although flood risk is a primary focus for many authorities and organisations, other environmental issues are becoming more recognised; and these do not need to be dealt with separately. Nature based solutions offer multiple benefits that can offer long term sustainability and resilience if they are designed, built and maintained correctly.

During covid the UK government’s message on planning has been ‘Build Back Better’, but does ‘better’ include green or nature recovery? Certainly, the UK Government’s 25 year Environment Plan and the Environment Agency’s National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England focuses on developing communities that are resilient to tomorrow’s climate. Policy will only go so far, so how do we push this?

The Role of Plan-making

Most of the time the questions that are asked are: ‘should this piece of land be developed for housing or left to be a natural green space?’ But space is running out and the risk of environmental disasters is increasing. So why can’t we have both? The tough answer is that we must find a way because it is the only way. Going forward new plans and development really ought to seek new designs that incorporate nature rather than omit it.

At its best strategic growth finds a way of striking the balance between natural capital and urban capital. Planners must be given greater licence to plan the strategic growth of their areas based on its contribution to delivering a range of objectives, and not just meeting housing targets. Strategic growth can and should deliver objective on active and shared travel; healthy communities and culture; growing natural capital and climate resilience.

It is encouraging to see that the National Model Design Code (2021) expects Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to produce maps of strategic landscape assets, topographical characteristics, and green and blue infrastructure. Of course many, if not all, LPAs will have an authority-wide plan showing each type of open space and natural designations. The more proactive LPAs will plan their strategic growth in response to settlement-wide topography and landscape thus protecting strategic-scale natural capital from encroachment.

Doing so is nothing new. The historical pattern of development in the vast majority of cities and towns will have been shaped by an understanding of the underlying topography, local climate, and natural events such as flooding.

People-centred, not Car-centric Neighbourhoods

We can next consider the ‘urban form’ of neighbourhoods. This is the scale at which the three-dimensional pattern, or arrangement, of development blocks, streets, buildings and open spaces is formed.

Visit any desirable residential neighbourhood and in most cases natural features such as parks, street trees, grassed verges and gardens will be an important part of the character of the area. Natural landscaping needs to be an integral part of future townscapes. Where sites contain existing natural features these should be used to a scheme’s advantage rather than being seen as a constraint. Landscape and ecology strategies in new development should be designed to support sustainable drainage requirements, but can also be an opportunity to provide space for growing food, or for play and to allow children to develop cognitive skills.

More Trees Please

At the scale of new buildings, plots or streets, the architectural and engineering details become an opportunity. Solutions such as increasing soft landscaping on and around buildings, and rainfall recycling systems need to become part of normative design. Yet even simple solutions such as trees can be difficult to achieve in a planning system often pre-occupied by meeting unsustainable parking standards, and a reluctance to take on the liability for SuDS and NFM features.

From experience getting all stakeholders to agree to the humble street tree can be anything but straightforward. Now that national and local planning guidance seems to be gearing toward increasing tree cover in new development, it is hoped that the multiple benefits – from environmental, to ecological, to quality of life – of trees will start to increase exponentially.

Part of the reason trees are hard to deliver may be that whilst trees are relatively easy to include as part of site plans and drawings, the intricacies of planting arrangements require input from specialists often absent at both the design and build stages.

Issues such as tree pit dimensions, supports for newly planted trees, species, canopies and root systems all need to be considered. Research by BlueGreen Urban has found that twenty-five to thirty percent of new urban trees die within two years. Local Planning Authorities can reduce this rate by requiring design teams to take specialist advice on issues such as un-compacted soil volumes, excavations, soil recipe and soil cell systems.

What does the Future look like?

No longer should we look at the natural environment as a separate ‘asset’, and yes the natural environment is now becoming widely described as being an asset. We need to embed the natural environment into our development, if we’re to build resilient communities.

Incorporating SuDS and NFM measures at the scale of new development are a sign of progress and things to come. However, with significant growth planned in the form of approximately 3 million homes over the next decade more innovative solutions are needed.

Hull is a city of about 250,000 people, with around 90 per cent of its built-up area below the high-tide line, increasing the risk of significant flooding. The risk of flooding in the city is from all sources: river, tidal, rainfall, surface water, groundwater, and sewer.

In response Hull is pioneering new innovative approaches to water management based on the principle of Living With Water in which all new development is expected to embrace water management as positive, above ground, visible features – so that water, and the risk of being flooded is a visible, conscious part of daily-life in the city. Not to scare people, but rather to give them a greater understanding and help them to think about how to help increase their own resilience and that of their community.

New approaches to water management is overseen by the Living With Water partnership – between local councils, university, water company and the Environment Agency – who are working collectively to develop innovative water management systems.

In 2019 twelve years after major summer storms across the UK caused the flooding of about 7,800 homes and 1,300 businesses in the city. Hull hosted the RIBA Competition Living With Water. The design contest invited participants to draw up innovative flood-resilient concepts for two major regeneration sites located within the city’s former docklands.

Eventual winners Harper Perry Architects were chosen from a shortlist of five. A competition gallery of all 44 entries and 5 shortlisted finalists is hosted online at Living with Water (ribacompetitions.com).

For Hull it was important that the competition engaged as wide a network of talented designers as possible who may not otherwise have been part of the solution. By inviting architects and designers to apply their skills and creativity, the city has gained insights into design-led solutions to what is perhaps its most pressing challenge.