Managing urban flood risk in Blue‐Green cities: The Clean Water for All initiative

O’Donnell, Emily; Thorne, Colin R.; Yeakley, J. Alan

doi:10.1111/jfr3.12513

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Similar concepts have influenced Asia-Pacific cities, such as the "Active Beautiful and Clean Waters" (ABC) programme initiated in Singapore in the mid-2000s, which aims to promote more active, beautiful, and clean-living environments for the public using "Blue-Green Infrastructure" (BGI) measures [36]. In the early 2010s, several UK cities stated the aspiration to become a "Blue-Green City" (BGC) [37], which is a city that aims to recreate a more naturally oriented water cycle in its urban environment by merging its management of the urban water cycle with its management of public green spaces and corridors [38]. Knowledge gained about urban planning and urban water management through these practices creates a solid foundation for the adoption of NBS within the SCP.…”

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confidence: 99%

Addressing Challenges of Urban Water Management in Chinese Sponge Cities via Nature-Based Solutions

Chan

Thorne

et al. 2020

Water

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Urban flooding has become a serious issue in most Chinese cities due to rapid urbanization and extreme weather, as evidenced by severe events in Beijing (2012), Ningbo (2013), Guangzhou (2015), Wuhan (2016), Shenzhen (2019), and Chongqing (2020). The Chinese “Sponge City Program” (SCP), initiated in 2013 and adopted by 30 pilot cities, is developing solutions to manage urban flood risk, purify stormwater, and provide water storage opportunities for future usage. Emerging challenges to the continued implementation of Sponge Cities include (1) uncertainty regarding future hydrological conditions related to climate change projections, which complicates urban planning and designing infrastructure that will be fit for purpose over its intended operating life, and (2) the competing priorities of stakeholders and their reluctance to make trade-offs, which obstruct future investment in the SCP. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is an umbrella concept that emerged from Europe, which encourages the holistic idea of considering wider options that combine “Blue–Green” practices with traditional engineering to deliver “integrated systems of Blue–Green–Grey infrastructure”. NBS includes interventions making use of natural processes and ecosystem services for functional purposes, and this could help to improve current pilot SCP practices. This manuscript reviews the development of the SCP, focusing on its construction and design aspects, and discusses how approaches using NBS could be included in the SCP to tackle not only urban water challenges but also a wide range of social and environmental challenges, including human health, pollution (via nutrients, metals, sediments, plastics, etc.), flood risk, and biodiversity.

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confidence: 99%

Addressing Challenges of Urban Water Management in Chinese Sponge Cities via Nature-Based Solutions

Chan

Thorne

et al. 2020

Water

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“…Both WSUD and BGI concepts emphasize the value in the connection and interaction of blue and green components, encouraging networks of interconnected BGI assets that can manage, treat and convey runoff and potential flood waters, while also maximizing the development of wider benefits [5,11]. Recent work has shown that provision of these multiple benefits is often interlinked, and it is, therefore, important to consider them in concert [5,12]. For example, through integrating BGI into the wider urban environment, it is possible not only to alleviate the flood risk, increase flood resilience and improve water quality of runoff but also to improve habitat and connect with wildlife corridors through urban landscapes [5,13,14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flood resilience, amenity and biodiversity benefits of an historic urban pond

Krivtsov

Birkinshaw

Arthur

et al. 2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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The main pond within the historic Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is an important component of urban blue-green infrastructure. This paper reports on flood resilience provided by the pond (simulated using the CityCAT hydrodynamic model), its water residence times (obtained using the Shetran hydrological model), and the ecology and biodiversity (vascular plants, bryophytes, aquatic invertebrates, phyto- and zooplankton, birds) of the pond and the adjacent area. The results show that the pond improves the flood resilience with at least a 27% reduction in the peak discharge during a 1 h, one in 100-year event. The area represents a biodiversity hot spot with a range of native taxa occurring among introduced plant species. The plankton community is dominated by diatoms, reflecting elevated levels of turbulence and a relatively short residence time, with an average value of 10 days. Analysis of macroinvertebrate community indicates a potential for water quality improvement. The results are discussed in relation to multiple societal benefits related to flood resilience, recreation, education, water quality, amenity and biodiversity value. The conclusions may prove particularly valuable for introducing practical measures in the water catchment, preventing waterlogging of the soil and ensuring an uninterrupted supply of public services. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Urban flood resilience'.

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“…There exists a wide range of mitigation measures (Table 8.1). There are three main types: (1) property-level flood risk adaptation, (2) nature-based solutions and (3) engineering solutions (O'Donnell et al, 2019;Attems et al, 2020;Patt and Jüpner, 2020; also see Chapter 3 and Chapter 5 in this volume). Each entails varying costs and effectiveness for flood risk reduction.…”

Section: Mitigation Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual measures for adaptive cities

Rinnert¹

2022

Spatial Flood Risk Management

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Managing urban flood risk in Blue‐Green cities: The Clean Water for All initiative

Cited by 13 publications

References 13 publications

Addressing Challenges of Urban Water Management in Chinese Sponge Cities via Nature-Based Solutions

Addressing Challenges of Urban Water Management in Chinese Sponge Cities via Nature-Based Solutions

Flood resilience, amenity and biodiversity benefits of an historic urban pond

Individual measures for adaptive cities

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