Nature-based solutions to sewage dumping on the North Kent Coast
Lead Research Organisation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Department Name: LSE Cities
Abstract
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. It will have a significant and permanent impact on the water cycle. This in turn has serious implications for the long-term sustainability of the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales.
Throughout the whole of 2021, Southern Water discharged raw sewage into waterways for more than 160,000 hours, with the average spill lasting 8.4 hours, according to Environment Agency data. Southern Water was fined £ 90 million last year for knowingly and deliberately dumping raw sewage off the south coast between the years 2010 and 2015. The company has vowed to change its ways, but many areas in the UK are still experiencing sewage dumping into rivers and the sea.
This project explores the significance, impacts and implications of alternative wastewater systems in the context of the sewage dumping crisis in UK coastal communities. It investigates and proposes alternative well-designed, community-based, public infrastructure and guiding principles for local government decision-makers.
The project will undertake two phases: the first is a diagnostic survey of the current situation (which remains unclear with a lot of information held behind request forms) of the entire North Kent Coast following the Saxon Shore Way. The second phase will explore design-led propositions to tackle the twin problem of too much water entering the sewer network and sewage discharging into the sea. The project is community-based and centred on a partnership with local activists, SOS Whitstable.
The primary aim of the project is to consider the significance of the impacts and implications of alternative wastewater systems in the context of an existing Victorian sewage system at breaking point. It will investigate how the current situation is, propose how improvements would and could manifest in different contexts and locations and conclude by suggesting a range of designs and guiding principles for local government decision-makers. The outcomes would also serve as tools for local groups to engage with Southern Water and other stakeholders driving conversations towards tangible ways forward, and alternatives to costly large-scale, high-tech upgrades.
The aim is to gain a better understanding of how events that stress the water network manifest, in order to give water companies alternative local solutions to reduce the impact on infrastructure. This will require bringing local people on that journey. Encouraging more gardens, sustainable drainage and designing civic infrastructures that simultaneously reduce the water load of our infrastructure networks through alternative decentralized sewage solutions for necessary overflows and doing so through connected, well-designed public infrastructures - green space, walkways, public parks, tidal pools, and so on.
Communities up and down the UK are united in outrage, voicing their rage at the scale with which raw sewage is seeping into our waterways. Wastewater systems provide a critical service to society, and their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change places the health and sanitation of many communities at risk.
Throughout the whole of 2021, Southern Water discharged raw sewage into waterways for more than 160,000 hours, with the average spill lasting 8.4 hours, according to Environment Agency data. Southern Water was fined £ 90 million last year for knowingly and deliberately dumping raw sewage off the south coast between the years 2010 and 2015. The company has vowed to change its ways, but many areas in the UK are still experiencing sewage dumping into rivers and the sea.
This project explores the significance, impacts and implications of alternative wastewater systems in the context of the sewage dumping crisis in UK coastal communities. It investigates and proposes alternative well-designed, community-based, public infrastructure and guiding principles for local government decision-makers.
The project will undertake two phases: the first is a diagnostic survey of the current situation (which remains unclear with a lot of information held behind request forms) of the entire North Kent Coast following the Saxon Shore Way. The second phase will explore design-led propositions to tackle the twin problem of too much water entering the sewer network and sewage discharging into the sea. The project is community-based and centred on a partnership with local activists, SOS Whitstable.
The primary aim of the project is to consider the significance of the impacts and implications of alternative wastewater systems in the context of an existing Victorian sewage system at breaking point. It will investigate how the current situation is, propose how improvements would and could manifest in different contexts and locations and conclude by suggesting a range of designs and guiding principles for local government decision-makers. The outcomes would also serve as tools for local groups to engage with Southern Water and other stakeholders driving conversations towards tangible ways forward, and alternatives to costly large-scale, high-tech upgrades.
The aim is to gain a better understanding of how events that stress the water network manifest, in order to give water companies alternative local solutions to reduce the impact on infrastructure. This will require bringing local people on that journey. Encouraging more gardens, sustainable drainage and designing civic infrastructures that simultaneously reduce the water load of our infrastructure networks through alternative decentralized sewage solutions for necessary overflows and doing so through connected, well-designed public infrastructures - green space, walkways, public parks, tidal pools, and so on.
Communities up and down the UK are united in outrage, voicing their rage at the scale with which raw sewage is seeping into our waterways. Wastewater systems provide a critical service to society, and their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change places the health and sanitation of many communities at risk.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ricky Burdett (Principal Investigator) | |
| Julia King (Co-Investigator) |
| Description | The project successfully managed to distill a large amount of research into four discreet but connected proposals. The four projects which summarize the design research findings represent four viable, existing, alternatives to the kind of sewage infrastructure which dominates not just our landscape but our imaginaries. The ideas presented are: A piece of living infrastructure thanks to the ability of a single oyster to filter 150 litres of water a day; A managed wetland to filter raw sewage; A membrane bioreactor to filter waterways; And a rain gardens which transform the street into an overflow drain reducing inflow. Each project in parallel contributes to public life: A classroom, a tidal pool, a public fountain, and expansive public realm. Due to a serendipitous opportunity to show the research at the Design Museum in London the resolution of the proposals went further than we would have imagined or expected. This opportunity has allowed the research to be shown with a high degree of sophistication and ambition that would not have been possible within the constraints of the funding. This opportunity also allowed further development of what 'design research' meant when communicating this to a public audience. The display resolved the four research proposals into three versions of the same thing. In other words, the proposals are represented as a future visual (in a large-scale drawing produced by an illustrator based on my collages), a site assessment (through film), and finally through technical details (in a diagrammatic drawing based on the details of the case study projects). Consequently the research is on display for a year at the Design Museum which see's over 50,000 visitors a month. Overall, the objectives of the project were met. The headline ambition to test ideas and propose alternative green / nature-based infrastructural solutions was completed according to plan. The project as set out in the application began with 'a diagnostic survey' (using a term coined by the biologist and sociologist Patrick Geddes) of the entire North Kent Coast following the Saxon Shore Way from Whitstable to Margate. This was complemented by a drone survey at four sites that were identified through this initial survey for their locations at high discharge points and in the case of the Margate, acute flooding risk. The second phase explored design-led propositions to tackle the twin problem of too much water entering the sewer network and sewage discharging into the sea. The project was led and implemented principally by LSE Cities Research Associate Julia King. |
| Exploitation Route | Overall, the objectives of the project were met. The headline ambition to test ideas and propose alternative green / nature-based infrastructural solutions was completed according to plan. The project as set out in the application began with 'a diagnostic survey' (using a term coined by the biologist and sociologist Patrick Geddes) of the entire North Kent Coast following the Saxon Shore Way from Whitstable to Margate. This was complemented by a drone survey at four sites that were identified through this initial survey for their locations at high discharge points and in the case of the Margate, acute flooding risk. The second phase explored design-led propositions to tackle the twin problem of too much water entering the sewer network and sewage discharging into the sea. The main challenges faced has been around the more public facing moments envisaged in the proposal which failed to materialize to the extent that would have been desired. We did, however, host a protest attended by over 2000 people and the programme officer led a walk along the coast accompanied by a filmmaker. In hindsight, the timeline was too ambitious. However, work continues through the research projects with meetings lined up with key stakeholders, notably, Southern Water. Funding like this inherently needs more work and consequently the challenge of delivering everything within the time from of the budget is difficult. However, the project did manage to successfully deliver on the core stated aims and with the additional delivery of the show at the Design Museum. |
| Sectors | Construction Education Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Detail of economic and societal impact The project, we hope, will be part of a wider shift which is seeking to repair the damage water companies are doing to our water bodies and a culture shift in terms of the kind of sewage solutions that are seen as feasible. This is a very difficult thing to measure. The work on display in one of London's most prominent museums goes a long way to evidencing the impact. And ongoing conversations with project partners SOS should further evidence the impact of the work. It is an unrealistic expectation to see the impact immediately for a project which is tackling major infrastructural problems and envisaging large scale physical and social change. How findings are impacting the public To quote our project partners: "The main impact has been the resolution of a series of proposals that we can use in our activism. We are looking at setting up meetings in the new year to see if we can push some of these ideas from concept to reality. We, as a not-for-profit, don't have these kinds of resources so it adds to the kind of lobbying we can do when we can not only highlight the dire situation in terms of waste pollution but also begin to speculate alternative solutions. We would have liked to be more engaged with the design process but hope to be more involved in this next step." Again, these impacts cannot be recorded immediately and will take time to come to fruition. Challenges to overcome to achieve impact The biggest challenge is less achieving but measuring impact. We don't have the capacity to track every visitor at the Design Museum. But are already seeing the impact in that the Crown Estate has reached out to understand more about the work. A production company has reached to explore amplifying these messages. Impact within academia It is harder to impact within academia where the metric remains peer review journals. However, Julia is participating at a large conference at the Design Museum called, IN FOCUS: RESEARCH, a collaboration between Future Observatory and The World Around. Participating in events like this will only contribute to the discourse around design research and further methods for doing applied, design led work. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Construction,Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |