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This study explores system interactions of stormwater management solutions using Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS) and Green Infrastructure (GI) within the wider urban landscape. A series of interdependencies between urban components relating to stormwater management are identified. These include physical interdependency, geographical interdependency, cyber interdependency and logical interdependency, as defined by Peerenboom (2001). Stormwater management using SuDS/GI are viewed according to their Hydrological, Ecological and the Built Environment functions during events up to the design rain (non-flood condition) and during controlled exceedance and uncontrolled inundation (flood condition). The inclusion of SuDS/GI into the urban fabric is shown to modify urban functional and relational interdependencies under both these conditions. Within the context of the UK, there are fragmented responsibilities across planning scales created by SuDS/GI solutions which have not addressed the relational complexities that exist between agencies and competent authorities. The paper identifies the key barriers towards effective adoption of SuDS/GI within the context of the UK as physical barriers, perception/information barriers and organisational barriers.

PurposeThe paper seeks to examine the latest stage in a process of change aimed at introducing concepts of sustainable development into the activities of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, UK.Design/methodology/approachThe rationale behind defining the skills which future engineers require is discussed and vehicles for change at both undergraduate and postgraduate level are described. Reflections on the paradigms and pedagogy of teaching sustainable development issues to engineers are offered, as well as notes on barriers to progress which have been encountered.FindingsThe paper observes that the ability to effectively initiate a change process is a vital skill which must be formally developed in those engineers wishing to seek sustainable solutions from within the organisations for which they will work. Lessons are drawn about managing a change process within a large academic department, so that concepts of sustainable development can be effectively introduced across all areas of the engineering curriculum.Practical implicationsA new pedagogy for dealing with changes from the quantitative to the qualitative is required, as the paper questions where the education balance should lie between providing access to technological knowledge which can be applied to designing hard solutions, and training engineers to rethink their fundamental attitudes towards a broader, multiple perspective approach in which problem formulation and context setting play a vital role in reaching consensual solutions.Originality/valueThe paper reviews previously recognised key themes for engineering education for sustainable development, and proposes three further essential ingredients relating to an engineer's ability to engage in problem definition, manage change in organisations, and understand the nature of technical and business innovations.