The mismanagement of surface water

This paper is concerned with raising awareness of the unsustainable impacts of surface water and with attempting to stimulate the interdisciplinary debate required amongst applied geographers to address the problems associated with it. In the UK, surface water is managed via a drainage philosophy that has been largely unchanged since the industrial revolution. The paper examines the unsustainable impacts of present surface water management techniques and provides evidence that they directly exacerbate problems of pollution, flooding and low groundwater resources and, through indirect means, detrimentally affect many other sectors including the environment, regeneration and spatial development. Consideration is then given to two of the major influences that will affect the future of surface water management namely, housing demand and climate change. The paper demonstrates how existing problems could be intensified unless the current methodology and regulatory framework is questioned. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.