## 3 Results
### Engagement and Adoption  
Community engagement can be time-consuming to establish. However, co-designed solutions tend to fit better with community aspirations and reduce the likelihood of opposition to such schemes. This was noted by the Partnerships Manager at the Environment Agency, who reflected:  
Figure 10: Related-samples sign test histogram showing the positive and negative differences between manhole 7 (after the SuDS trees) and manhole 6 (before the SuDS trees) during 20 August–22 October 2018 (**A**) and 18 January–25 February 2019 (**B**). Both histograms show only negative differences indicating flow level was lower downstream of the SuDS features. Figure 9: Normality plots for (**A**) manhole 6 during 20 August–22 October 2018, (**B**) manhole 7 during 20 August–22 October 2018, (**C**) manhole 6 during 18 January–25 February 2019 and (**D**) manhole 7 during 18 January–25 February 2019. _\"Through partnership working, the demonstration site at South Moor will allow small, innovative businesses to test new water and energy saving products in a live environment. Crucially the project includes input from 300 residents to shape solutions and deliver immediate impact for the local community\"_. Local residents were consulted throughout the planning stages. A community consultation reported that flooding and water quality were two of the main issues residents identified in the Twizell Burn and more than half (55.6%) wanted to see improvements, such as SuDS, to prevent or reduce the risk of flooding [35]. In this study, the aim was to involve and engage communities in the co-design of water infrastructure solutions to aid adoption, awareness and education through the use of digital and communications technologies. This presented opportunities to improve education and provide tools and resources for understanding how to protect and maintain their local environment. One of the key deliverables of the tender was to engage the community of South Moor in the surface water monitoring proposal. A range of outreach activities enabled engagement with different sectors of the community, appealing to their distinct needs and interests. For example, activities such as planting up hanging baskets and weeding the street-level raingardens were planned around informational drop-in events at the community centre, so residents could participate in hands-on activities and learn about the new water infrastructure and ongoing regeneration. This interaction with practitioners taught them new skills, which they could implement to maintain the new SuDS features or apply to their own rear-yards. It also presented the opportunity to garner informal feedback on residents' perceptions and acceptance of the new, greener streetscape. Hosting the drop-in events at the community centre presented the opportunity to showcase the live stream of data on the user interface, discuss the impact of the SuDS features and provide information on complementary topics, such as water efficiency. This aligned with further incentives to (i) improve water and energy efficiency and (ii) upskill around digital literacy. To enable this, DCC installed a computer for public use in the community centre. Feedback suggested that despite the best intentions, community engagement with the new water infrastructure was mixed. At the street scale, the community champions were highly engaged and keen to participate in the informal drop in events and volunteering activities. A group of 5-10 residents attended all such events, contributed to maintenance tasks, engaged with the project team proactively and readily sought opportunities to increase further investment in blue-green infrastructure in the area. However, this engagement was not widespread beyond the champions, with some residents voicing concern, to the project team at drop-in events, over who was going to maintain the raingardens and prevent them becoming overgrown with weeds.