Whether there’s too much as in flooding, or simply just too little, water has become a vital resource the construction and built environment sectors must seek to manage. Tim Clark reports
Standing on the hedgeless Cotswolds plains in mid-March the dry stone walls, sheep, and abundance of grass give the impression that Spring has certainly sprung.
What has been absent for most of the month is clouds. Even before the month of March is out, 2025 recorded one of the sunniest – and driest – in years.
According to the Met Office, as of mid-point in the month the rainfall totals range from just 4% of the long-term average (LTA) in the South East and up to 16% of the long-term average in the North East of England. Rewind a year, and the UK was experiencing one of its wettest 12-month periods on record.
Rain, either too much of it, or a lack of it is causing a headache not only for UK farmers, but developers looking to build new homes, urban planners and construction firms.
How is the sector managing to tackle the issue, on both a micro- and macro-scale, and what can the UK learn from best-practice globally?
When it comes to the construction process itself, the way water is managed on construction sites can significantly influence temperature regulation, waste reduction, pollution control, and flood prevention.
In Cambridge, rapid population growth, climate change, and over-abstraction from local chalk aquifers has led to mounting pressure on its water resources.
In November 2023, the World Green Building Council branded the freshwater crisis as urgent as the transition to net zero, and predicted that by 2030, there will be a 40% gap between global fresh water supply and demand, with the built environment being responsible for around 15% of freshwater use.
The report, which was drawn up in partnership with CBRE, WSP and Arup, stated that 14 of the world’s 20 megacities are experiencing water scarcity. Water usage in the supply chain is one area it recommended addressing.
“Water, in the manufacturing of building materials and products, is used in indirect processes including chemical reactions such as the hardening of cement, cooling, cutting and washing,” the report said.
“The embodied water in construction producers and materials varies geographically, however studies have shown that wood, concrete and cement are the products with the highest consumption of water.”
Issues within the construction sector included a lack of sub-metering and monitoring, as well as lack of data. inefficient fixtures, appliances and plumbing systems, and inadequate maintenance plans.
Without the necessary monitoring to track inefficiencies “it is challenging to identify wastage or leaks to make informed decisions about conservation measures”.
Cities worldwide are having to draw up construction and urban design techniques to harness the power of water, and innovate in their water usage, management of extreme weather, and use of materials to help alleviate problems, or help promote a healthier and more sustainable future.
Simon Harbour, building consultancy partner at Rapleys says that in the United States additional floor and roof trusses are often used to increase the structural stability of a house from strong winds, as well as extensive landscaping to protect houses from flooding.
“Similarly in New Zealand, base isolation systems are used, as well as an emphasis on strong timber for houses to be able to withstand far more extreme weather conditions than in the UK. Yet when UK weather events hit … our property and infrastructure almost immediately fail,” he says.
According to Chris Zevenbergen, professor at the Water Engineering Department of IHE Delft and at TuDelft, the Netherlands, a change in emphasis is needed to make a real impact.
“What we see is there’s still a lot of emphasis on short-term solutions in cities. It’s very difficult for cities to have a long-term perspective and to have a real appealing view to become what we call a regenerative living city,” he says.
“Cities are still working in a very fragmented way, implementing climate adaptation interventions but most of them have little or low impact.
“They have no critical mass. One of the exceptions is Singapore. Singapore is really becoming what we call a regenerative living city.”
Singapore slings
When it comes to using water to moderate heat, developers in the UK may also wish to take a leaf out of Singapore’s book.
The equatorial Asian city-state isn’t considered short of water, however authorities in Singapore have implemented a policy to encourage rooftop gardens, built permeable pavements, and also looked to design buildings that can help decrease rain runoff and thus lower the risk of flash flooding.
Concrete canals have been transformed into meandering rivers with natural riverbanks, district cooling systems have been built, which are more efficient than air conditioning and the city is also capturing and reusing rainwater to reduce its reliance on imported water.
Addressing climate change isn’t just about responding to a global issue; on a project level, it’s about anticipating impacts and ensuring the space can endure and recover.”
Duncan Paybody
In Europe, Holland has developed some of the world’s most advanced water management systems. Dutch engineers have pioneered the Room for the River programme
The programme was initiated in response to the high discharge volumes of the Rhine and Meuse rivers in 1993 and 1995, which led to the evacuation of over 200,000 people. The programme emphasises restoring natural floodplains to enhance safety and environmental quality.
“There are important lessons to be learned by looking at how we’ve historically dealt with uncertainties around storm and surge probabilities,” Zevenbergen says.
“Initially, we reacted only after events occurred. Later, we prepared based on past experiences. Now, we recognise our environment is changing, and we must adapt our systems to these shifts. We assume these changes are slow and that systems can be adjusted incrementally. But this may not be enough. Instead, we must anticipate trends in extreme events and slow-changing drivers.”
Blue-Green Infrastructure
There are several approaches to managing uncertainty. The traditional method is risk-based, especially in infrastructure design. This assumes we understand the probability and consequences of events, allowing cost-benefit analyses to determine the best solutions. This “fail-safe” infrastructure design aims to minimise the chance of failure using historical data to project risks.
What is known as “grey” infrastructure, such as dams, and culverts can and has failed. Therefore ‘blue-green’ infrastructure is now being used on a wider scale. The aim is to design cities to account for failure scenarios. A more modern approach is resilience-based design, which plans for failure and incorporates it into infrastructure from the outset. This is known as “safe-to-fail” infrastructure.
In the UK, there are concerns that regulations haven’t kept pace with climate change.
“It’s clear that property guidelines standards are stuck in the past. They need to be modernised in line with the level of extreme weather that the UK is now faced with, to ensure the safety and security of homeowners facing extreme weather events now and for many years to come,” Harbour adds.
“Until future home design is taken seriously by developers and architects, to account for the current and future climate conditions, we will not see any improvement with seasonal living conditions or positive impacts in relation to energy consumption and the reduction of flooding.
“The current regurgitated and archaic designs that are used currently need throwing away with the onus on designing something with a view to longevity that we can all work with.”
Cities like Copenhagen and Melbourne have embraced blue-green infrastructure. Copenhagen’s Cloudburst Management Plan integrates permeable pavements, detention basins, and underground water storage to prevent urban flooding. Similarly, Melbourne’s Fishermans Bend redevelopment features integrated stormwater harvesting, reducing the strain on municipal water supplies while promoting green public spaces.
Zevenbergen says that in Hong Kong, the city has been designed to incorporate large underground storage centres for water, with parks built on top.
“There’s a multi-functional use of space,” he says. “These systems are currently being built across many cities in Asia.”
Greywater recycling systems, which treat wastewater from sinks, showers, and washing machines, have become more common in the past decade. In Los Angeles, the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant treats wastewater for reuse in industrial processes and landscape irrigation.
This approach not only conserves potable water but also reduces the energy footprint associated with water treatment and transportation. Singapore’s NEWater system purifies wastewater into high-quality drinking water, demonstrating how cities can close the water loop for enhanced sustainability. Digital twins are also able to simulate water flow and management, and can enable planners to design more efficient drainage and conservation systems.
Digging up roads is also an option – though not one which may win support of commuters. In Japan, typical asphalt surfaces have begun to be replaced in some cities such as Tokyo, which has adopted porous asphalt roads to enhance water absorption, mitigating flood risks during heavy rainfall.
In Chicago, the Green Alley Programme retrofits urban alleyways with permeable materials, preventing waterlogging and decreasing strain on drainage systems. These solutions not only improve water management but also reduce heat retention, contributing to overall urban cooling.
Some options are also being taken up in the UK. Water-efficient landscaping techniques, such as xeriscaping and drip irrigation can also have an impact. Xeriscaping, which uses drought-resistant plants, is gaining traction in arid regions like California and the Middle East. Meanwhile, drip irrigation systems deliver water directly to plant roots.
In Manchester, the 24-acre Mayfield Park was designed to include a more flood-resilient ecosystem and water management design. In January it faced its first major test, a flood event equivalent to a 1-in-25-year scenario.
“It’s essential to pair flood-prone areas with the right planting strategies. The river, designed to be a wilder part of the landscape, serves a clear purpose, it’s meant to be a natural habitat, not a carefully curated garden,” says Duncan Paybody, landscape director at architecture practice, Studio Egret West.
“Practical solutions are key to creating resilient spaces. Addressing climate change isn’t just about responding to a global issue; on a project level, it’s about anticipating impacts and ensuring the space can endure and recover.”
This, as well as planning for 1-in-100-year events, had been planned into the innovative design of the park by Studio Egret West. Using river modelling, a river morphology specialist and pre-grown anchored river edge systems, the team developed an iterative and practical design that redirected floodwaters into designated areas, ensuring the park remained usable for visitors even during extreme weather events.
As climate change intensifies, the role of water in construction and urban design will become even more crucial. Future cities will need to adopt a holistic water management approach, integrating smart sensors, artificial intelligence, and data analytics to optimise water use in real-time.
“Long-term thinking is now critical. In the past, planning may have looked just 10 or 20 years ahead,” Zevenbergen says. “Now, we must consider horizons much further into the future.”
Image credit: somsak nitimongkolchai/Shutterstock
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