The Future Drainage 2025 event hosted by KaarbonTech, gathered new insight into drainage asset management challenges facing UK local authorities.
During a dedicated roundtable on ‘Asset Management Challenges in a Changing Climate’, delegates described how gaps in data, funding pressures, fragmented ownership and intensifying climate impacts are shaping one another; creating a system under increasing strain.
Climate impacts were a prominent theme. Authorities described higher siltation rates, more frequent blockages from leaf fall, and limited understanding of older or undocumented drainage routes. As rainfall patterns become more unpredictable, several teams emphasised the growing value of better real-time insight, including linking rainfall forecasts to known hotspots and improving visibility of how the network behaves during storm events.
Despite these pressures, the roundtable highlighted a number of practical steps that are already helping authorities strengthen resilience. These included:
- targeted survey programmes to support risk-based cleansing
- better coordination between street sweeping and drainage operations
- clearer lifecycle-led planning and evidence for investment
- improved validation of historic datasets and SuDS handover information
Commenting on the findings, KaarbonTech said: “Local authorities are committed to improving resilience, but constrained by limited confidence in data, restricted resources and networks not built for today’s climate. The ambition is there – the sector now needs the capacity and clarity to move at the pace the climate demands.”
The full insight summary is available at: https://kaarbontech.co.uk/articles/asset-management-challenges-in-a-changing-climate