Over the next year, the Dighty Restoration Project will move from concept refinement to technical development, alignment with Water Resilient Dundee (WRD) governance, and early enabling activities. This period will solidify the project’s integration with Dundee’s long-term water resilience goals, particularly the ambition to reduce reliance on the combined sewer network. Governance through the Water Resilient Dundee Steering Group will ensure consistent direction, city-wide alignment and a collaborative, climate-resilient approach.

Project Context and Strategic Alignment

The Dighty Restoration Project is a partnership effort led by SEPA and Dundee City Council aiming to restore the Dighty Water, create accessible blue‑green corridors, and deliver climate‑resilient, community‑focused environmental improvements. The restoration involves re‑meandering straightened channels, reinstating wetlands, and replacing artificial banks with naturalised forms to restore ecological function and improve biodiversity.

This work sits within the wider Water Resilient Dundee (WRD) vision—a long-term strategy for more sustainable water management across Dundee, aiming to shift the city from traditional drainage approaches toward blue‑green infrastructure and climate‑adaptive design.

Role of the Water Resilient Dundee Steering Group

Governance for the Dighty Restoration Project is aligned with the Water Resilient Dundee Steering Group, which oversees the broader Water Resilient Dundee programme and ensures consistency of approach across city‑wide initiatives. The Steering Group includes both Scottish Water and Dundee City Council leadership and provides quarterly oversight, strategic direction, and integration with citywide drainage, flooding, and regeneration programmes.

The Steering Group will:

• Ensure that the Dighty Restoration aligns with WRD objectives, including city‑wide flood resilience, community benefits and long-term drainage planning.
• Provide governance continuity across the SEPA-led restoration activity and the WRD Partnership’s drainage improvement ambitions.
• Oversee partnership working between WRD, SEPA’s Water Environment Fund work, and local planning and community initiatives.

This alignment guarantees that design choices, branding, wayfinding approaches, and public communications remain coherent across the catchment.

Future Aspirations for Rainwater Disconnections

A key strategic ambition, connected to WRD, is reducing dependency on Dundee’s predominantly combined sewer system, where 88.5% of the city currently drains to the combined network. Restoring natural watercourses and providing alternative rainwater pathways is essential to this long-term transition.

The Dighty corridor provides one of Dundee’s best opportunities to:

• Capture, treat and convey rainwater directly to the natural environment, reducing inflows to the combined system.
• Support future disconnection of surface water from key neighbourhoods (Fintry, Linlathen, Mid Craigie, Happyhillock).
• Inform wider district drainage strategies under the WRD initiative.

The next 12 months are therefore a crucial staging period for aligning ecological restoration works with strategic drainage transformation across the catchment.