Water Sensitive Urban Design: An Investigation of Current Systems, Implementation Drivers, Community Perceptions and Potential to Supplement Urban Water Services

Urban public space is extraordinarily adaptable under a pattern of relatively stable changes. However, when facing unprecedented and potentially extreme climatic changes, public spaces may not have the same adaptation capacity. In this context, planned adaptation gains strength against "business as usual". While public spaces are among the most vulnerable areas to climatic hazards, they entail relevant characteristics for adaptation efforts. As such, public space design can lead to effective adaptation undertakings, explicitly influencing urban design practices as we know them. Amongst its different intrinsic roles and benefits, such as being a civic common gathering place of social and economic exchanges, public space may have found an enhanced protagonism under the climate change adaptation perspective. In light of the conducted empirical analysis, which gathered existing examples of public spaces with flood adaptation purposes, specific public space potentialities for the application of flood adaptation measures are here identified and characterized. Overall, this research questions the specific social potentiality of public space adaptation in the processes of vulnerability tackling, namely considering the need of alternatives in current flood management practices. Through literature review and case study analysis, it is here argued that: people and communities can be perceived as more than susceptible targets and rather be professed as active agents in the process of managing urban vulnerability; that climate change literacy, through the design of a public space, may endorse an increased common need for action and the pursuit of suitable solutions; and that local know-how and locally-driven design can be considered as a service with added value for adaptation endeavors.

Section: Public Space For Actor's Awareness and Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Floods and Climate Change Adaptation: The Potential of Public Space Design When Accommodating Natural Processes

Silva

Costa

2018

“…The deficits in current hydrologic catchment models to simulate the effectiveness of LSDM include the following issues: (1) the model is intended to be developed for large drainage areas; (2) it is mainly developed for flood modelling (derived by large storms); (3) it is based on lumped parameters, which do not allow individual setup and precise placement of local stormwater management measures; (4) it shows weak soil water modelling; (5) it shows weak representation of physical phenomena; (6) it shows a lack of GIS or/and user-friendly interface [17][18][19][20]. These deficits illustrate the need for improved understanding of how local scale drainage measures can be addressed on the catchment scale in numerical models [18,20].…”

Section: The Example Of Local Scale Drainage Measures and The Deficitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These deficits illustrate the need for improved understanding of how local scale drainage measures can be addressed on the catchment scale in numerical models [18,20].…”

Section: The Example Of Local Scale Drainage Measures and The Deficitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Local Scale Drainage Measures in Meso Scale Catchment Modelling

Hellmers

Fröhle

2017

This article presents a methodology to optimize the integration of local scale drainage measures in catchment modelling. The methodology enables to zoom into the processes (physically, spatially and temporally) where detailed physical based computation is required and to zoom out where lumped conceptualized approaches are applied. It allows the definition of parameters and computation procedures on different spatial and temporal scales. Three methods are developed to integrate features of local scale drainage measures in catchment modelling: (1) different types of local drainage measures are spatially integrated in catchment modelling by a data mapping; (2) interlinked drainage features between data objects are enabled on the meso, local and micro scale; (3) a method for modelling multiple interlinked layers on the micro scale is developed. For the computation of flow routing on the meso scale, the results of the local scale measures are aggregated according to their contributing inlet in the network structure. The implementation of the methods is realized in a semi-distributed rainfall-runoff model. The implemented micro scale approach is validated with a laboratory physical model to confirm the credibility of the model. A study of a river catchment of 88 km 2 illustrated the applicability of the model on the regional scale.

“…WSUD strategies have shown to be sustainable, innovative and cost-effective approaches for controlling stormwater runoff. These strategies can also reduce sewer overflow volume and peak overflow rate by capturing excess stormwater runoff entering the sewer network during intense rainfall events [17,[32][33][34][35][36][37]. The steps involved in the modelling of WSUD strategies for reducing sewer overflows are presented in brief below.…”

Section: Part 2: Define Optimal Strategies For Sewer Overflow Mitigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Short Duration Intense Rainfall Events on Sanitary Sewer Network Performance

Nasrin

Sharma

Muttil

2017

Self Cite

Short duration intense rainfall causes an increase in rainfall derived infiltration and inflow (RDII) into aging sewer networks, which leads to Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs). This study presents a generalised framework for assessing and mitigating the impacts of intense rainfall on sanitary sewer networks. The first part of the proposed framework involves a detailed hydraulic modelling to evaluate the performance of the sewer network. The second part deals with the development of SSO mitigation strategies based on Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) approaches. This paper also demonstrates the application of the first part of the proposed framework for a case study catchment in Melbourne, Australia. The hydraulic performance of the case study sewer network during a wet and a dry year is presented. The analysis found that for the wet year, 11 manholes had sewer overflows, whereas 53 of 57 manholes in the network of 3.2 km had surcharges. Such a study will benefit the water authorities to develop mitigation strategies for controlling SSOs in their sewer systems.