Root causes of failures in sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS): an exploratory study in 11 municipalities in The Netherlands

Abstract Despite being widely implemented, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) do not always function flawlessly. While SUDS have been tested extensively and seem to perform well on a laboratory or pilot scale, practitioners' experience is different: failures in occur regularly practice, resulting malfunctioning systems, water nuisance high costs. To anticipate their malfunctioning, thus improve performance, better understanding of occurring underlying causes needed. Based an explorative case-study approach, consisting site visits semi-structured interviews with professionals, this study presents inventory technical analysis root causes. In total, 70 cases 11 Dutch municipalities documented. The results show that the interfaces between other are prominent failure locations. addition, we found originate from entire development process SUDS, i.e., design, construction user/maintenance phase. With respect these failures, our mainly socio-institutional nature. These valuable insights for both practitioners scholars, contributing renewed socio-technical system more management practices.