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Water
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Urban Floods in a Changing Climate
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Urban Floods in a Changing Climate

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 January 2023) | Viewed by 7635

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Konstantine P. Georgakakos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Hydrologic Research Center, 11440 West Bernardo Court, Suite 375, San Diego, CA 92127, USA
Interests: rainfall and flood prediction; hydrometeorology; hydroclimatology; nonlinear dynamical systems
Dr. Zhengyang Cheng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Hydrologic Research Center, 11440 West Bernardo Court, Suite 375, San Diego, CA 92127, USA
Interests: flash flood warning; computational fluid dynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The population of urban centers is increasing worldwide. Climatic variability and changes in the magnitude and occurrence of severe weather events has detrimental impacts, especially in the built urban environment, and the available controls developed from historical experience are less effective in coping with such extremes.

The present Special Issue addresses the evolving state of the art in understanding the nature of urban hazard occurrences and magnitude changes, in planning for effective control measures, in modern operational urban flash-flood forecasting and warning, and in the mitigation of hazard impacts and disaster responses in urban areas under climatic variability and change.

Innovative observational, diagnostic, and prognostic science-based studies and papers on decision support tools tailored for the urban environment are solicited for this Special Issue. The specific topics include, but are not limited to: (1) surface and subsurface hydrology modeling and observations in urban environments; (2) nowcast and forecast of urban runoff and flash floods; (3) urban flash-flood warnings and responses; (4) urban flash-flood management and policy; (5) inundation and channel–floodplain interactions; (6) uncertainty quantification and data assimilation; (7) climate-induced changes in urban flooding; (8) application of artificial intelligence (AI) in urban flood risk management.

Prof. Dr. Konstantine P. Georgakakos
Dr. Zhengyang Cheng
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

  • urban flooding
  • urban flood control
  • climate change impacts
  • urban flood hazard mitigation
  • regional study
  • policy and management
  • uncertainty analysis
  • warning and operations
  • artificial intelligence

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 7139 KiB  
Article
Numerical Modeling of Flash Flood Risk Mitigation and Operational Warning in Urban Areas
by Zhengyang Cheng, Konstantine P. Georgakakos, Cristopher R. Spencer and Randall Banks
Water 2022, 14(16), 2494; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14162494 - 13 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2403
Abstract
This paper aims to demonstrate the research-to-application and operational use of numerical hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to (a) quantify potential flash flood risks in small urban communities with high spatial resolution; (b) assess the effectiveness of possible flood mitigation measures appropriate for such [...] Read more.
This paper aims to demonstrate the research-to-application and operational use of numerical hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to (a) quantify potential flash flood risks in small urban communities with high spatial resolution; (b) assess the effectiveness of possible flood mitigation measures appropriate for such communities; and (c) construct an effective operational urban flash flood warning system. The analysis is exemplified through case studies pertaining to a small community with dense housing and steep terrain in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, through numerical simulations with a customized self-contained hydrologic and hydraulic modeling software. Issues associated with limited data and the corresponding modeling are discussed. In order to simulate the extreme scenarios, 24-h design storms with return periods from 1 to 100 years with distinctive temporal and spatial distributions were constructed using both daily and hourly precipitation for each month of the rainy season (May–October). Four flood mitigation plans were examined based on natural channel revegetation and the installation of gabion dams with detention basins. Due to limitations arising from the housing layout and budgets, a feasible plan to implement both measures in selected regions, instead of all regions, is recommended as one of the top candidates from a cost-to-performance ratio perspective. Numerical modeling, customized for the conditions of the case study, is proven to be an effective and robust tool to evaluate urban flood risks and to assess the performance of mitigation measures. The transition from hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to an effective urban flash warning operational system is demonstrated by the regional Urban Flash Flood Warning System (UFFWS) implemented in Istanbul, Turkey. With quality-controlled remotely sensed precipitation observations and forecast data, the system generates forcing in the hydrologic and hydraulic modeling network to generate both historical and forecast flow to assist forecasters in evaluating urban flash flood risks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Floods in a Changing Climate)
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23 pages, 4927 KiB  
Article
Comparison of Urbanization, Climate Change, and Drainage Design Impacts on Urban Flashfloods in an Arid Region: Case Study, New Cairo, Egypt
by Bassma Taher Hassan, Mohamad Yassine and Doaa Amin
Water 2022, 14(15), 2430; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14152430 - 05 Aug 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4639
Abstract
Urban flooding is considered one of the hazardous disasters in metropolitan areas, especially for those located in arid regions. Due to the associated risks of climate change in increasing the frequency of extreme rainfall events, climate-induced migration to urban areas leads to the [...] Read more.
Urban flooding is considered one of the hazardous disasters in metropolitan areas, especially for those located in arid regions. Due to the associated risks of climate change in increasing the frequency of extreme rainfall events, climate-induced migration to urban areas leads to the intensification of urban settlements in arid regions as well as an increase in urban expansion towards arid land outskirts. This not only stresses the available infrastructure but also produces substantial social instability due to unplanned urban growth. Therefore, this study sheds light on the main factors that are increasing the flood risk, through examining the consequences of rapid urban growth and the performance of drainage networks on urban flood volumes and comparing it with the effects induced by climate change on the surface runoff. The effect of urbanization is assessed through land use maps showing the historical urbanization conditions for the past 30 years, while considering the role of urban planning and its effect on exacerbating surface runoff. Six climate projection scenarios adopted from three Global Climate Models under two Representative Concentration Pathways (4.5 and 8.5) during the period (2006–2020) were compared to ground observed rainfall data to identify which climate scenario we are likely following and then evaluate its effects on the current rainfall trends up to the year 2050. The significance of the drainage design in the mitigation or increase of surface runoff is evaluated through capacity-load balance during regular and extreme storms. It is found that using impervious surfaces coupled with poor planning causing the blockage of natural flood plains led to an increase in the total runoff of about 180%, which is three times more than the effect induced by climate change for the same analysis period. Climate change decreased the intensities of 2- and 5-year rainfall events by 6% while increasing the intensities of extreme events corresponds to 100-year by 17%. Finally, the urban drainage had a distinguished role in increasing surface runoff, as 70% of the network performed poorly during the smallest rainfall event of 2-year return period. The study emphasizes the urgency to re-evaluate the existing and future urban drainage design approach: although urban development and climate change have inevitable effects on the increase in urban flood volumes, it could be alleviated through improved infrastructures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Floods in a Changing Climate)
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