It's some materials for schools across London, working with Mission:Explore to look at water and drainage.
One of the strands is to explore the development of Sustainable Drainage systems in cities (SuDs)
I'm working with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and there are a few sites in particular which we're looking at.
The WWT have a range of sites which would make good places to visit.
One area that I've focussed on is the importance of decisions made by individual householders as to whether to pave their front gardens. This is often something that is done for convenience, or to reduce car insurance premiums.
Collectively, however, it is removing many thousands of acres of land which was previously capable of absorbing rainfall, and turning it into impermeable surfaces which increase surface water drainage. At the same time, vegetation is removed, which changes the nature of streets, and increases the amount of noise and other environmental problems.
Should there be prohibitions against changes being made to front gardens, or is an English person's home still their castle ?
The 'Crazy Paving' report was published in 2005 and is one of a series of reports which focussed on the impact of changes to front gardens.
Download the report from the link here (PDF download)
It connects with an activity that I have created for EDINA's MapStream service.
More to come as the project comes to a conclusion.
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