ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the principles and techniques of sustainable drainage and its wider benefits to cities. Urban drainage is then discussed from the point of view of the five frameworks of sustainability. The frameworks are sustainable development, ecological modernisation, socio-technical systems, urban political ecology and radical ecology. In order to demonstrate the relevance of sustainable drainage within a dominant ecological modernisation and neoliberal policy discourse, proponents have emphasised ecosystem services and triple bottom line benefits. Analysis of the ecosystem services provided by sustainable drainage and green infrastructure are intended to demonstrate the wider benefits of new approaches compared to the simple drainage benefits of conventional drainage infrastructure. Transitions theory helps to explain why technical and governance innovations succeed or fail in sustainable drainage as in other sectors of infrastructure and socio-technical systems. Urban politics are also at play in processes of urbanisation in the Global South, which have undermined natural and traditional drainage structures, increasing pollution and flood risk.
