Sustainable urban drainage: delineation of a scientific domain of knowledge production

Abstract

Sustainable Urban Drainage emerged and gained prominence during the late 90s. Despite this progress, there is little uniformity in subjects and definition of terms within the overall sustainability theme. This tends to create a duplication of objectives and confusion about the correct use of techniques and procedures. This paper seeks to identify, map and evaluate ‘Sustainable Urban Drainage’ as a scientific domain, using relationships between underlying subthemes. We analyzed 3,805 publications by 8,237 authors with relation to 11,957 citations using sociometric and bibliometric techniques. The results confirm the existence of the knowledge domain with one main nucleus and 20 independent networks. Core subthemes such as stormwater management, low impact development, integrated urban water management, bioretention, and best management practices are distinguishable the main domain.

Sustainable Drainage Technologies Under the Sustainability Tripod Perspective

“…It is engaged in researching various themes and so in the thematic focus of this work, given the development of Sponge Cities following local public policies. Rosa et al (2019) identified that the vast majority of research conducted was carried out in developed countries, which might derive from the investment capacity of these countries, as well as their concerns with alternative solutions based on the perspective of drainage, giving greater importance to environmental issues. But which, on the other hand, can characterize opportunities promising in the development of new locally appropriate technologies as well as the transfer of sustainable drainage technologies to these countries.…”

“…There is little uniformity in subjects and definitions of terms within the theme of sustainability with regard to urban drainage. Among the approaches ranging from the technical to the political scope, the growing concern to understand how to operationalize socio-technical solutions capable of guaranteeing significant levels of success based on sustainable development principles become even more relevant (ROSA et al, 2019).…”