Sports Management Issue 1 2012 - Leisure Opportunities

SAPCA is working with Loughbrough University on this water
management project, Murray Simpson talks us through the issues
ith changes in planning rules
and implications of climate
change, the management of
drainage from sports pitches
is fast becoming an issue for the sports pitch
construction industry. The treatment of sports
surfaces as impermeable areas and the tight discharge
consents granted by local authorities often
means that costly attenuation systems have to be
included in sports pitch construction. But, are
these complex systems really necessary and could
the money be better spent within the project
Loughborough University is currently conducting
a research project – supported by SAPCA, the
Institute of Groundsmanship and Sport England
– to assess the drainage behaviour of pitches.
The project is investigating the fate of rainfall as
it infiltrates through sports pitches en-route to
the drainage system and aims to provide useful
guidance for future pitch design.
At present, pitch drainage systems design is
based on the potential for all the rainfall that
hits the pitch surface to be discharged via the
drainage system. This criterion, which is imposed
by planning authorities, is a means of restricting
significant volumes of surface run-off entering local
drainage systems and possibly leading to flash
flooding. This frequently sets low site discharge
rates and often means expensive attenuation systems
have to be specified within the pitch design.
However, there is potential for sports pitches
to act as potential sinks for drainage water due
to their attenuation properties.
Loughborough University’s School of Civil and
Building Engineering is currently one year into
a project that is looking into the drainage behaviour
of pitches by applying the principles
currently used in the design of Sustainable Urban
Drainage systems (SuDs). The aim of the project
is to understand in detail the drainage behaviour
of pitches and to produce some design guidance
to allow the true drainage behaviour and
properties of the pitch to be accounted for in
planning and design assessment.
The work involves three phases: the construction
of an advanced computer model of pitch
drainage behaviour, laboratory tests on material
drainage properties and scale pitch tests as well
as monitoring full pitches by measuring rain fall
and drainage discharges.
Field monitoring is carried out by installing a
rain gauge and a flow meter (designed by Loughborough
University) at the pitch. This allows the
volume of water ‘in’ to be assessed relative to
the volume of water ‘out’.
As the project enters its second year, the project
team is looking to collect as much information
and experience as possible from the sports industry.
The team is currently installing monitoring
equipment at sites across the country, but is looking
for more sites to take part in the research. If
you have a sports pitch that may be suitable for
evaluation contact m.simpson2@lboro.ac.uk.
Murray Simpson is a PhD research student at
Loughborough University’s Department of Civil
and Building Engineering
74 Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital
Issue 1 2012 © cybertrek 2012