scholarly journals Achieving Urban Flood Resilience in an Uncertain Future

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Fenner ◽  
Emily O’Donnell ◽  
Sangaralingam Ahilan ◽  
David Dawson ◽  
Leon Kapetas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Rainwater Harvesting ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Urban Flood ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
The Uk

Preliminary results of the UK Urban Flood Resilience research consortium are presented and discussed, with the work being conducted against a background of future uncertainties with respect to changing climate and increasing urbanization. Adopting a whole systems approach, key themes include developing adaptive approaches for flexible engineering design of coupled grey and blue-green flood management assets; exploiting the resource potential of urban stormwater through rainwater harvesting, urban metabolism modelling and interoperability; and investigating the interactions between planners, developers, engineers and communities at multiple scales in managing flood risk. The work is producing new modelling tools and an extensive evidence base to support the case for multifunctional infrastructure that delivers multiple, environmental, societal and economic benefits, while enhancing urban flood resilience by bringing stormwater management and green infrastructure together.

scholarly journals Location Matters: A Framework to Investigate the Spatial Characteristics of Distributed Flood Attenuation

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 2706
Author(s):  
Federico Antolini ◽  
Eric Tate
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Distributed Systems ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Ability To Work ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Flood Magnitude ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Flood Attenuation

Distributed attenuation in flood management relies on small and low-impact runoff attenuating features variously distributed within a catchment. Distributed systems of reservoirs, natural flood management, and green infrastructure are practical examples of distributed attenuation. The effectiveness of attenuating features lies in their ability to work in concert, by reducing and slowing runoff in strategic parts of the catchment, and desynchronizing flows. The spatial distribution of attenuating features plays an essential role in the process. This article proposes a framework to place features in a hydrologic network, group them into spatially distributed systems, and analyze their flood attenuation effects. The framework is applied to study distributed systems of reservoirs in a rural watershed in Iowa, USA. The results show that distributed attenuation can be an effective alternative to a single centralized flood mitigation approach. The different flow peak attenuation of considered distributed systems suggest that the spatial distribution of features significantly influences flood magnitude at the catchment scale. The proposed framework can be applied to examine the effectiveness of distributed attenuation, and its viability as a widespread flood attenuation strategy in different landscapes and at multiple scales.

scholarly journals SuDS & Sponge Cities: A Comparative Analysis of the Implementation of Pluvial Flood Management in the UK and China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Lashford ◽  
Matteo Rubinato ◽  
Yanpeng Cai ◽  
Jingming Hou ◽  
Soroush Abolfathi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Urban Flood ◽  
Sponge City ◽  
Rainfall Model ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Whole Life Costing

In recent decades, rapid urbanization has resulted in a growing urban population, transformed into regions of exceptional socio-economic value. By removing vegetation and soil, grading the land surface and saturating soil air content, urban developments are more likely to be flooded, which will be further exacerbated by an anticipated increase in the number of intense rainfall events, due to climate change. To date, data collected show that urban pluvial flood events are on the rise for both the UK and China. This paper presents a critical review of existing sustainable approaches to urban flood management, by comparing UK practice with that in China and critically assessing whether lessons can be learnt from the Sponge City initiative. The authors have identified a strategic research plan to ensure that the sponge city initiative can successfully respond to extreme climatic events and tackle pluvial flooding. Hence, this review suggests that future research should focus on (1) the development of a more localized rainfall model for the Chinese climate; (2) the role of retrofit SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) in challenging water environments; (3) the development of a robust SuDS selection tool, ensuring that the most effective devices are installed, based on local factors; and (4) dissemination of current information, and increased understanding of maintenance and whole life-costing, alongside monitoring the success of sponge cities to increase the confidence of decision makers (5) the community engagement and education about sponge cities.

scholarly journals A spatial framework to explore needs and opportunities for interoperable urban flood management

2020 ◽  
Vol 378 (2168) ◽  
pp. 20190205 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Dawson ◽  
Kim Vercruysse ◽  
Nigel Wright
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Urban Flood ◽  
Infrastructure Systems ◽  
Source Areas ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Flood Source

Managing current and future urban flood risks must consider the connection (i.e. interoperability) between existing (and new) infrastructure systems to manage stormwater (pluvial flooding). Yet, due to a lack of systematic approaches to identify interoperable flood management interventions, opportunities are missed to combine investments of existing infrastructure (e.g. drainage, roads, land use and buildings) with blue-green infrastructure (e.g. sustainable urban drainage systems, green roofs, green spaces). In this study, a spatial analysis framework is presented combining hydrodynamic modelling with spatial information on infrastructure systems to provide strategic direction for systems-level urban flood management (UFM). The framework is built upon three categories of data: (i) flood hazard areas (i.e. characterize the spatial flood problem); (ii) flood source areas (i.e. areas contributing the most to surface flooding); (iii) the interoperable potential of different systems (i.e. which infrastructure systems can contribute to water management functions). Applied to the urban catchment of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (UK), the study illustrates the novelty of combining spatial data sources in a systematic way, and highlights the spatial (dis)connectivity in terms of flood source areas (where most of the flood management intervention is required) and the benefit areas (where most of the reduction in flooding occurs). The framework provides a strategic tool for managing stormwater pathways from an interoperable perspective that can help city-scale infrastructure development that considers UFM across multiple systems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Urban flood resilience’.

A Modelling Tool for Assessing Flood Risk

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.J. Balmforth ◽  
P. Dibben
Keyword(s):  
Asset Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Sewer System ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Urban Flood ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Water Companies ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Developed World

Managing urban flooding remains one of the key challenges for the operators of sewerage systems in the developed world. In the UK it has been an important area of investment over the last five-year asset management period, and will be even higher on the agenda for the next five. Although modern software tools are extremely sophisticated in estimating the probability of sewer surcharging and surface flooding, the science of assessing individual property flood risk is still in its infancy. The authors have developed a flood risk tool to identify the consequential effects of sewer system overloading in terms of individual property flood risk. This is post-processing software using the output from conventional modelling software. The tool recognises two separate causes of property flooding: backing up flow through connecting drains when sewers are surcharged, and the conveyance of flood flows over the surface. The severity of each is combined with return period to give a flood risk score for each property within a catchment. The tool has been trialled by UK water companies as a proactive way of managing flood risk and has been shown to offer significant advantages over traditional methods of urban flood management.

Evaluating the runoff storage supply-demand structure of green infrastructure for urban flood management

2021 ◽  
Vol 280 ◽  
pp. 124420
Author(s):  
Chunlin Li ◽  
Miao Liu ◽  
Yuanman Hu ◽  
Rui Zhou ◽  
Wen Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Urban Flood ◽  
Demand Structure

scholarly journals A restatement of the natural science evidence concerning catchment-based ‘natural’ flood management in the UK

2017 ◽  
Vol 473 (2199) ◽  
pp. 20160706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon J. Dadson ◽  
Jim W. Hall ◽  
Anna Murgatroyd ◽  
Mike Acreman ◽  
Paul Bates ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Evidence Summary ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Science Evidence

Flooding is a very costly natural hazard in the UK and is expected to increase further under future climate change scenarios. Flood defences are commonly deployed to protect communities and property from flooding, but in recent years flood management policy has looked towards solutions that seek to mitigate flood risk at flood-prone sites through targeted interventions throughout the catchment, sometimes using techniques which involve working with natural processes. This paper describes a project to provide a succinct summary of the natural science evidence base concerning the effectiveness of catchment-based ‘natural’ flood management in the UK. The evidence summary is designed to be read by an informed but not technically specialist audience. Each evidence statement is placed into one of four categories describing the nature of the underlying information. The evidence summary forms the appendix to this paper and an annotated bibliography is provided in the electronic supplementary material.

Evaluating rainwater storage capacity of green infrastructure for urban flood management

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Xiaoyan Cao ◽  
Na Huang ◽  
Runqing Chen ◽  
Yunfang Jiang ◽  
Yu Shi
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Storage Capacity ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Urban Flood

scholarly journals Review on sponge city construction for flood management

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Femin Maria IX ◽  
Elba Helen George
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Flood Control ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Environment Change ◽  
Urban Flood ◽  
Sponge City ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
City Construction

Due to the global climate change and the rapid progress of urbanization, the frequent occurrence of flooding disasters and severe pollution seriously threaten the sustainable development of modern cities. To solve these problems, China first started the construction of the ‘Sponge City’. Sponge city can improve city’s ability to adapt to the environment change and to cope with floods; it can also make them more sustainable. It was not only meant for urban flood control, but also rainwater harvest, ecological restoration of urban land and water quality improvement. The rainfall received in 2020 in Hyderabad of India, has been the highest for the month October in a century. The risk is going to increase year after year in the whole nation. So India too needs a mission that mitigates flood risk and provides a pathway to water security. And the most promising solution across the world at this time can be the idea to adopt Sponge city construction. Improper research in this field will lead to huge maintenance difficulties and other related problems. This paper mainly focuses on presenting the concepts of sponge city construction along with its pathway. Not only does it focus on Sponge city’s benefits, but also its challenges are also stated, which leads to better understanding about its scope of continuing for future. Keywords: Flood control, sponge city, green infrastructure, urban floods.

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