Review: Urban groundwater issues and resource management, and their roles in the resilience of cities

Abstract

The relationships between cities and underlying groundwater are reviewed, with the aim to highlight the importance of urban groundwater resources in terms of city resilience value. Examples of more than 70 cities worldwide are cited along with details of their groundwater-related issues, specific experiences, and settings. The groundwater-related issues are summarized, and a first groundwater-city classification is proposed in order to facilitate a more effective city-to-city comparison with respect to, for example, the best practices and solutions that have been put in practice by similar cities in terms of local groundwater resources management. The interdependences between some groundwater services and the cascading effects on city life in cases of shock (e.g., drought, heavy rain, pollution, energy demand) and chronic stress (e.g., climate change) are analyzed, and the ideal groundwater-resilient-city characteristics are proposed. The paper concludes that groundwater is a crucial resource for planning sustainability in every city and for implementing city resilience strategies from the climate change perspective.

Advances in Urban Groundwater and Sustainable Water Resources Management and Planning: Insights for Improved Designs with Nature, Hazards, and Society

“…Recently a new focus has emerged, addressing questions on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) studies integrated into urban water supply systems, notably in historic cities. Sustainable urban groundwater systems are considered increasingly significant in global development issues such as management, protection, distribution, safety, and services (e.g., [2,3,19,27,29,39,50]). In addition, urban population growth and improved living patterns lead to increased water use and demand.…”

“…4 billion people) at locations generally close to coastal areas, and it is projected that this proportion will grow to 68% by 2050 [26]. Urban groundwater is a relatively recent field of hydrological sciences (e.g., [3,15,19,[27][28][29][30]). However, attention is focused on the relationship between urban development and water resource management that started in the 1950s-1960s, when the accelerated growth after World War II, especially in Europe and North America, started to create a wide range of hydrological problems.…”

“…Urban development impacted surface water resources, but the effects have also started on groundwater, hence the emergence of the urban groundwater concept (e.g., [9,19,30,31]). La Vigna [3] proposed a groundwater city classification that reflects geographical aspects, climate contexts, and hydrogeological settings, with a clear connection to groundwater dynamics with several categories: (i) coastal, lagoon, and delta groundwater cities (CGC-LDGC); (ii) volcanic groundwater cities (VGC); (iii) hard-rock and karst groundwater cities (HRGC-KGC); (iv) alluvial groundwater cities (AGC); (v) cold climate groundwater cities (CCGC); (vi) arid climate groundwater cities (ACGC).…”

Preliminary identification of areas suitable for Sustainable Drainage Systems and Managed Aquifer Recharge to mitigate stormwater flooding phenomena in Rome (Italy)

“…The groundwater circulation starts from the more peripheral and elevated sectors of the city area joining in the central city area in correspondence with the main rivers (Tevere and Aniene) (Fig. 1, Mazza et al 2015) and to the sea along the coast in the western sector (not visible in the main scheme); according to La Vigna (2022), Rome is thus a city that can be hydrogeologically identified as a Volcanic Groundwater City (VGC) but also a Coastal Groundwater City (CGC).…”

“…Integrated water resource management is an extremely important aspect of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN General Assembly 2015) and this is still more crucial for cities (Schaffer and Vollmer 2010;La Vigna 2022).…”