Talk:Drainage

Untitled
> Drainage must be maintained on these, not only to prevent flooding, but to also keep the soil moist enough to prevent wind erosion and fires.
 * This is nonsense, drainage is to get rid of moisture, as stated in the opening paragraph. Maybe irrigation was meant. 217.121.144.89 09:54, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Earliest example of drainage
According to, drainage was first practiced in Sumeria. --Brunnock 13:56, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Early history - sewerage
I have changed the link from sewage to sewerage because sewage is mucky water and sewerage is the provision of drains for carrying the water away. (RJP 18:31, 27 February 2006 (UTC))

Drainage Definition
As alluded to in the History section, drainage is not just a process used to remove water from agricultural land - it is a means to remove surface water from urban areas to prevent flooding. I think there is much that needs to be said about this. Kieron 28 Aug 2006

History needs to be more well defined...201.243.37.241 03:53, 26 February 2007 (UTC)Nat


 * The whole article needs to be split into soil drainage (which also is a natural process) and drainage used in cities. The basic concepts may be the same. We should make it easier for people to find information relating either definition. Since drainage (agriculture) redirects here, related information should be made identifiable. The article still needs a lot of work in general, so future editor should just keep an eye out for it. 76.97.245.5 (talk) 20:15, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Environmental impact
There are substantial environmental consequences from drainage. hundreds species of bird,fish, frogs and other fauna have gone extinct due to the habitat degration effect of drainage. the consequances are comparable in magnitude with deforestation. I don't have the necessary english knowledge to write it. --83.253.53.157 20:59, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Article Critique
In all, the Wikipedia article on drainage is poorly written. To start off, the introduction of the article is only two sentences long. The introduction goes only so far as to say that, “Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.” The introduction does not say what drainage is used for, other than to state that it can be used in agriculture. Furthermore, the introduction does not provide a date for the earliest recorded use of drainage, mention historical or modern methods for drainage, or talk about the related concept of sewerage.

The history section of the article is underwhelming. This section is split into “Early history” and “Drainage in the 19th century” sections. The “Early history” section refers to drainage in the Indus Valley Civilization, saying only that it was more advanced than that of contemporary cities in the Middle East. A comparison of the drainage techniques of the Indus Valley Civilization, and another Middle Eastern civilization would be nice for this section, and a comparative diagram would greatly improve the credibility of the claim. What makes the lack of information particularly pathetic is that the writer(s) of this section quoted from The Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations, a well-regarded collection of the work of over 30 experts in ancient history. While I have not examined the work myself, I believe that it is a fair assumption that the encyclopedia’s sections on drainage go into much more detail than is offered in the Wikipedia article. The “Drainage in the 19th century section” seems to be pulled directly from the 1881 Household Cyclopedia. The source seems to be authoritative and deserving of credibility, but information is severely lacking, as what is quoted seems to be directions for creating a drainage system of an unspecified type.

The article only cites four sources, and the only credible one seems to be The Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations. The second source cited is a City of Seattle Government web page on natural drainage systems, which would likely be credible, but the site was redesigned and the link is now non-functioning. The third source is a blog maintained by a Benjamin Franklin Plumbing franchise in Arizona. The blog has spelling errors, and the writer of the “Green drain” section of the Wikipedia drainage article simply copied and pasted directly from the blog post, offering a citation, but no quotation marks. Finally, the fourth source has absolutely nothing to do with the section of the article that it is cited in. The fourth source is a link to a roofing and drainage contractor’s home page, but the citation is placed in a sentence that talks about the seasonally or permanently high water tables of coastal plains and river deltas.

The article has several spelling and grammatical issues, but these do not generally interfere with the reader’s understanding. Such mistakes seem insignificant in comparison to the general lack of in-depth information offered by the article. The article would also greatly benefit from some sort of diagram that shows an entire drainage system, as the only visuals that are provided are several pictures of drains and drainage channels, as opposed to a schematic diagram of a drainage system. The information in the article seems credible, but there is far too much in the way of frivolous detail, and not enough in the way of general principles and comparison of different types of drainage systems, whether historical or modern.

HIST406-13crobert1 (talk) 17:59, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Contradiction in the history
The history contradicts itself - either it was invented in ancient times and in use during those times (although no dates have been mentioned the section was labelled "early history" whatever that means to the person who put that section in), or it was invented in the 18th century. My money's on it having already being invented since there was a sewerage system at Pompeii including hollow pipe drainage although the article does not mention this. I will try to find a source to support what I have said about Pompeii then add this to the section unless someone else prefers to do so. 90.214.133.96 (talk) 19:29, 16 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, the history section needs expansion and more self-consistency; you're most welcome to try improving it. Reify-tech (talk) 20:24, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Video
Draft caption: "Overflowing storm drain in Sydney, Australia 2022"

Xyxyzyz (talk) 23:19, 17 March 2022 (UTC)

SST
Drainage 2-3 pages 2409:4050:2EC8:C28D:0:0:D98A:D204 (talk) 10:30, 4 December 2023 (UTC)