Wild Park Rainscape

Project Summary

The Wild Park Rainscape has created a beautiful wetland area near the entrance to the park, designed to showcase better ways of managing water in a more natural and sustainable way than traditional drainage, bringing extra benefits for water, people and nature.

In 2023, The Aquifer Project successfully received funding to improve a small part of Wild Park in Brighton, creating an attractive area for people and wildlife. Following research from 2020-23 looking at flooding issues and existing infrastructure, a design around several shallow planted basins that can hold water during heavy rainfall, and which help to reduce pollution and improve the area for people and nature was developed. This is the Wild Park Rainscape.

How it works

The system is designed to slow and treat polluted road run-off from the A27 junction with Lewes Road. Previously, water was held in a balancing pond by The Keep before being piped to soakaways next to Wild Park, presenting a pollution risk to the aquifer.

The Wild Park Rainscape project has improved the function of the balancing pond, making it the first stage of a ‘treatment train’ slowing down the system and removing a significant amount of the pollution.

Halfway along The Parkway area is a new swale, or shallow planted channel to divert water from the pipe and bring it to the surface, to travel towards and cross the park entrance, to a wetland area at the front of Wild Park. This is made up of two shallow ‘wet’ lined basins, and two unlined basins which will be dry most of the time, apart from during heavy rainfall.

The vegetated swales and basins provide further treatment, so by the time water is allowed to infiltrate into the chalk below it will be clean.

As well as water quality benefits, the rainscape helps to address localised flooding within the park entrance, as well as providing community and biodiversity benefits – and a more visually attractive green space.

Research

Research and data collection are a fundamental part of the Wild Park Rainscape Project. Expert staff and students at the University of Brighton are involved in regular monitoring to help determine the effectiveness of the Rainscape, as well as to generate data and learnings that can be shared with the nature-based solutions community. Regular monitoring at this stage includes:

• Determining the form of contaminants
• Simulate SuDs processes (Vortex Separator)
• Monitoring of variables including temperature, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved ions, inorganic materials, redox potential
• Flow and water quality change research
• Sampling of polyaromatics and hydrocarbons.