Re-Thinking Urban Flood Management—Time for a Regime Shift

Abstract

Urban flooding is of growing concern due to increasing densification of urban areas, changes in land use, and climate change. The traditional engineering approach to flooding is designing single-purpose drainage systems, dams, and levees. These methods, however, are known to increase the long-term flood risk and harm the riverine ecosystems in urban as well as rural areas. In the present paper, we depart from resilience theory and suggest a concept to improve urban flood resilience. We identify areas where contemporary challenges call for improved collaborative urban flood management. The concept emphasizes resiliency and achieved synergy between increased capacity to handle stormwater runoff and improved experiential and functional quality of the urban environments. We identify research needs as well as experiments for improved sustainable and resilient stormwater management namely, flexibility of stormwater systems, energy use reduction, efficient land use, priority of transport and socioeconomic nexus, climate change impact, securing critical infrastructure, and resolving questions regarding responsibilities.

Comparison of Multi-Criteria Decision Support Methods for Integrated Rehabilitation Prioritization

“…The focus of operating companies in developed countries is therefore moving away from construction of new networks to maintenance, repair and adaptation, sometimes even reduction of the existing ones. This reduction has to be seen also in the context of decentralized systems e.g., for urban flood management [4].…”

Assessment of Flood Losses with Household Responses: Agent-Based Simulation in an Urban Catchment Area

“…In recent flood disasters, society and decision-makers are increasingly requiring instant flood information from the natural side and participatory flood control from the human side, as well as the integration of the two [31,32]. O'Connell and O'Donnell [33] have outlined the potential of agent-based model (ABM) in flood risk management for a coupled modeling of human and natural systems.…”

Conceptualization and Schematization of Mesoscale Sustainable Drainage Systems: A Full-Scale Study

“…This means that the urban surfaces occupied by SuDS have to comply with social-ecological qualities besides fulfilling their hydraulic role in an urban drainage perspective. Therefore, the planning and designing of SuDS has to be brought about collaboratively by water engineers and urban planners [8][9][10].…”

“…In order to facilitate the implementation of SuDS, it is necessary to provide tools and models to enhance the communication between the urban water engineers and urban planners [8]. This can be done by characterizing SCMs as well as understanding their cumulated affect in a larger system, which is reported to be challenging and empirically less attended [17].…”