Scientists at the University of Aberdeen and James Hutton Institute have just published a paper on a new approach for characterising temporary storage area (TSA) functioning. The open access paper published in the Journal of Hydrology looks at multiple TSA and assesses their drainage rates. A new tool was developed called the TSA Drainage Rate Analysis tool; a novel data-based mechanistic method that only requires rainfall and TSA water level data to describe individual TSA drainage rates. The study found that TSA design and outlet were found to be the dominant controls on drainage rates when the feature is full. Meanwhile, time-variable differences in functioning were more evident at lower water levels, when soil infiltration was the main TSA outflow.