The awareness of, and need for, limiting the discharge of pollutants from stormwater to recipients is growing. However, it is a complex decision for customers to choose stormwater facilities as there is a variety of technical solutions on the market that often are marketed by the manufacturer with high levels of purification and little need for maintenance. In Sweden, there is currently no national standard for tests of the purification function of stormwater facilities. There are also no test sites for standardized third-party tests.   

This project is a prestudy of a testbed for prefabricated compact stormwater facilities. The testbed will, when constructed, be able to ease the decision-making process of selection of measures for sustainable stormwater management. The testbed will also give manufacturers the opportunity to test and verify the function of their solutions under standardized conditions. 

In parallel with this project, a project has been carried out with the aim of updating the proposed standard for prefabricated compact stormwater facilities with the goal of a new Swedish national standard. The purpose of the planned testbed is to perform tests according to the proposed standard. 

The prestudy has been carried out through three project objectives: 

1. Three different options for possible placement of a test bed have been investigated and compared. The alternatives are (1) integrate into the existing test bed for small-scale sewage treatment in Uppsala, (2) construct the test bed next to the RISE office and workshop in Uppsala and (3) construct the test bed as a mobile container solution that can be placed according to alternative 1 or 2 for independent testing, borrowed to technology manufacturers for development work or placed in fields for technology evaluation or research projects. 

2. Examine how the test bed should be constructed to achieve a layout according to the proposed standard. 

3. Through an interview study, gather experiences from six existing and/or previous testbeds in the VA technology area to learn lessons/avoid similar mistakes. 

Together with the parallel project to develop the proposed standard, a workshop with approximately 30 participants and a questionnaire study with 12 participants have been carried out.