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Water
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Blue-Green Cities for Urban Flood Resilience
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Blue-Green Cities for Urban Flood Resilience

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2021) | Viewed by 23800

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vassilis Glenis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Water Group, School of Engineering, Newcastle University, UK
Interests: hydrodynamic modelling; urban flood modelling; blue-green infrastructure; urban drainage
Dr. Claire Walsh

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Water Group, School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
Interests: blue-green infrastructure; cities; adaptation and mitigation; climate change; integrated assessment; water resources; flooding; SDG6
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Blue-green infrastructure can play an important role in contributing to building flood resilience in urban areas, as well as providing a wider range of environmental, social, and economic benefits to multiple stakeholders at a range of scales. By increasing green and blue features in urban areas, infiltration and permeability are increased, enabling the capture, attenuation, and storage of surface water. Furthermore, features can contribute to improving water quality through filtration, offer amenity value, enhance biodiversity, and provide a lower-cost solution to traditional grey drainage infrastructure.

This Special Issue calls for contributions that investigate how blue-green infrastructure features can be better understood as a sustainable solution to function alongside, or instead of, traditional drainage infrastructure to enhance flood resilience in urban areas. Contributions considering blue-green infrastructure are welcome that: quantify benefits; seek to understand their effectiveness during different weather events; consider how to best design features; explore their management and maintenance requirements; gather data to provide evidence for a range of functions; and/or compare their value with traditional grey infrastructure.

Dr. Vassilis Glenis
Dr. Claire Walsh
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Flood resilience
  • Multiple values
  • Data for evidence
  • Climate mitigation
  • Urban areas

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 5986 KiB  
Article
Stormwater Detention Ponds in Urban Catchments—Analysis and Validation of Performance of Ponds in the Ouseburn Catchment, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
by Stephen J. Birkinshaw, Chris Kilsby, Greg O’Donnell, Paul Quinn, Russell Adams and Mark E. Wilkinson
Water 2021, 13(18), 2521; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13182521 - 14 Sep 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4123
Abstract
The impact of stormwater drainage and detention ponds on flooding is assessed using statistical analysis and physically based computer simulation of a 45-year case study for a peri-urban catchment. In 1978, the 54 km2 Ouseburn catchment in Newcastle upon Tyne was impacted [...] Read more.
The impact of stormwater drainage and detention ponds on flooding is assessed using statistical analysis and physically based computer simulation of a 45-year case study for a peri-urban catchment. In 1978, the 54 km2 Ouseburn catchment in Newcastle upon Tyne was impacted by the connection of a new 2.1 km2 residential development, directly to the Ouseburn River, via a stormwater drain, which reduced the time to peak and increased flood risk. Further residential developments of 1.6 km2 have been built since 2004, again with separated sewer systems, but this time linked to stormwater detention ponds before draining into the Ouseburn River. Detailed analysis of the data, confirmed with computer simulation, shows that in contrast with the 1978 intervention, these new developments had only a minimal effect on the flows in the Ouseburn River, in fact achieving a small reduction in peak flows for large events. This study assesses the post-construction efficiency of such systems, and we show that the stormwater detention ponds are working as designed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blue-Green Cities for Urban Flood Resilience)
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17 pages, 2057 KiB  
Article
Urban Pluvial Flood Management Part 2: Global Perceptions and Priorities in Urban Stormwater Adaptation Management and Policy Alternatives
by Charles Axelsson, Silvio Giove, Stefano Soriani and Patricia J. Culligan
Water 2021, 13(17), 2433; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13172433 - 04 Sep 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3092
Abstract
Urban stormwater infrastructure is at an increased risk of being overwhelmed by pluvial flood events due to climate change. Currently, there are no global standards or frameworks for approaching urban rainfall adaptation policy. Such standards or frameworks would allow cities that have limited [...] Read more.
Urban stormwater infrastructure is at an increased risk of being overwhelmed by pluvial flood events due to climate change. Currently, there are no global standards or frameworks for approaching urban rainfall adaptation policy. Such standards or frameworks would allow cities that have limited time, finances or research capacities to make more confident adaptation policy decisions based on a globally agreed theoretical basis. Additionally, while adaptation via blue-green infrastructure is often weighed against traditional grey infrastructure approaches, its choice must be considered within the context of additional policy alternatives involved in stormwater management. Using six global and developed cities, we explore to what extent a standardized hierarchy of urban rainfall adaptation techniques can be established through a combined Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. While regional and stakeholder differences emerge, our study demonstrates that green infrastructure undertaken by public bodies are the top policy alternative across the cities and stakeholder groups, and that there exists some consensus on best management practice techniques for urban stormwater adaptation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blue-Green Cities for Urban Flood Resilience)
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24 pages, 1382 KiB  
Article
Urban Pluvial Flood Management Part 1: Implementing an AHP-TOPSIS Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Method for Stakeholder Integration in Urban Climate and Stormwater Adaptation
by Charles Axelsson, Silvio Giove and Stefano Soriani
Water 2021, 13(17), 2422; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13172422 - 03 Sep 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3248
Abstract
Cities are facing increasing pressures to enact adaptation measures due to climate change. While blue-green infrastructure has emerged as a focal adaptation technique for stormwater management, in order to craft adaptation policies cities must consider a multitude of emerging, complex, and competing stakeholder [...] Read more.
Cities are facing increasing pressures to enact adaptation measures due to climate change. While blue-green infrastructure has emerged as a focal adaptation technique for stormwater management, in order to craft adaptation policies cities must consider a multitude of emerging, complex, and competing stakeholder interests around multiple adaptation alternatives. However, accounting for these different interests, analyzing their diverse priorities, and maintaining a transparent decision-making process is not easily achieved within the existing policy frameworks. Here we define and present a combined multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods that easily integrates and quantifies stakeholder priorities while remaining accessible for non-experts engaged in the policy-making process. We demonstrate the method’s effectiveness through analyzing opinions about stormwater adaptation in New York City across several stakeholder groups. The method succeeds in integrating quantitative and qualitative judgements, indicating stakeholder preferential differences and allowing for more inclusive policy to be crafted. It can be extended beyond stormwater to many urban climate adaptation decisions facing multi-criteria considerations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blue-Green Cities for Urban Flood Resilience)
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23 pages, 3286 KiB  
Article
International Perceptions of Urban Blue-Green Infrastructure: A Comparison across Four Cities
by Emily C. O’Donnell, Noelwah R. Netusil, Faith K. S. Chan, Nanco J. Dolman and Simon N. Gosling
Water 2021, 13(4), 544; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040544 - 20 Feb 2021
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 11609
Abstract
Blue-Green infrastructure (BGI) is recognised internationally as an approach for managing urban water challenges while enhancing society and the environment through the provision of multiple co-benefits. This research employed an online survey to investigate the perceptions of BGI held by professional stakeholders in [...] Read more.
Blue-Green infrastructure (BGI) is recognised internationally as an approach for managing urban water challenges while enhancing society and the environment through the provision of multiple co-benefits. This research employed an online survey to investigate the perceptions of BGI held by professional stakeholders in four cities with established BGI programs: Newcastle (UK), Ningbo (China), Portland (Oregon USA), and Rotterdam (The Netherlands) (64 respondents). The results show that challenges associated with having too much water (e.g., pluvial and fluvial flood risk, water quality deterioration) are driving urban water management agendas. Perceptions of governance drivers for BGI implementation, BGI leaders, and strategies for improving BGI uptake, are markedly different in the four cities reflecting the varied local, regional and national responsibilities for BGI implementation. In addition to managing urban water, BGI is universally valued for its positive impact on residents’ quality of life; however, a transformative change in policy and practice towards truly multifunctional infrastructure is needed to optimise the delivery of multiple BGI benefits to address each city’s priorities and strategic objectives. Changes needed to improve BGI uptake, e.g., increasing the awareness of policy-makers to multifunctional BGI, has international relevance for other cities on their journeys to sustainable blue-green futures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Blue-Green Cities for Urban Flood Resilience)
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