Water and wastewater facilities frequently represent the largest and most energy intensive loads owned and operated by water utilities, representing up to 35% of municipal energy use. The E²STORMED project aims to improve water management and energy efficiency in the urban water cycle and in buildings by promoting the use of innovative storm water solutions such as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in six Mediterranean cities.

To meet this objective, E²STORMED has developed a Decision Support Tool (DST) to include energy efficiency and environmental criteria in urban storm water management decisions. The DST has been developed using the six cities to compare and evaluate different scenarios of combining conventional and SuDS drainage systems. The results of applying this tool allow more sustainable, informed and objective storm water management.

The use of the E²STORMED DST will encourage the construction of Sustainable Drainage System. The E²STORMED provides help to estimate the construction and maintenance costs of these infrastructures. According to the results obtained in the six pilot cities of the E²STORMED project, the costs of the SuDS scenarios is similar to the conventional scenarios, so in most of the cases, new resources are not needed for storm water management. Although, the SuDS scenarios have clear benefits for the energy efficiency and the urban ecosystems.

In order to encourage this change in the storm water management, local and regional stakeholders related with water and energy management can be engaged in this decision process through meetings and working groups, as explained in the E²STORMED Transition Manual.