Welcome to the WATERUN Toolbox for Urban Water Runoff Management!

Are you a municipality, water utility, urban drainage operator or similar that is struggling with diffuse water pollution in your city? 

EU Directive 2024/3019 requires cities to manage pollution from stormwater overflows and urban runoff. This toolbox helps you do it — from understanding your system to selecting and monitoring measures.

It offers two entry points:

• A) The IUWMP Journey. Here you can create your Integrated Urban Wastewater Management Plan. A practical, step-by-step guide for municipalities and water utilities preparing an IUWMP as required by Directive (EU) 2024/3019, Annex V. It covers the full process: mapping your drainage system, setting measurable objectives, selecting and sizing measures (with priority given to nature-based solutions), and designing a monitoring programme that feeds into the next planning cycle. 
• B) WATERUN Tools for Diffuse Pollution Control. This is where you will find four tools developed in the WATERUN project to support IUWMP preparation: portable field screening for micropollutants, surface pollution mapping and ranking, block-level NbS planning, and risk-based decision support. Each tool comes with a factsheet, user guidance, atnd results from three case studies in Santiago de Compostela, Aarhus, and Amman, so you can see what the tools deliver in practice. 

Why Do We Need This Toolbox? 

Urban runoff and stormwater overflows are a source of pollution that is expected to increase due to urbanization and climate-driven rainfall pattern changes. Directive (EU) 2024/3019 requires cities to address this through Integrated Urban Wastewater Management Plans but the EU implementing guidance is expected by 2028. This toolbox does not anticipate or replace the official EU implementing guidance on IUWMPs. It offers one practical interpretation of the Directive’s requirements, grounded in published research and established planning practices from across Europe and beyond. Its purpose is to help municipalities begin preparing now, and to show where the WATERUN tools can support a process that every affected city will need to go through.

Integrated Urban Wastewater Management Plans (IUWMPs) are a central instrument to address this challenge. They provide the strategic framework for preventing and reducing pollution from storm water overflows, separately collected urban runoff and rainfall-driven pollution events. 

According to Annex V of Directive (EU) 2024/3019, IUWMPs must consider preventive and mitigation measures such as avoiding the entry of unpolluted rainwater into sewer systems (source control), promoting natural water retention and rainwater harvesting, increasing green and blue spaces, limiting impermeable surfaces, and giving priority to green and blue (nature-based) solutions in the case of new infrastructure.

Who Is This Toolbox For? 

If you are a municipal engineer, urban planner, drainage manager, or part of a water utility team working on overflow reduction, pollution control, or nature-based solutions, this platform is for you! Regulators, environmental agencies, consultants, and researchers can also use the toolbox to review plans, assess risk, or support strategic decisions. Its primary focus is on helping cities and utilities turn requirements into workable solutions.

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