Scientific Evidence behind the Ecosystem Services Provided by Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems

Abstract

Urban green infrastructure such as sustainable urban drainage systems are potential providers of ecosystem services. This paper reviews the field studies that empirically verify the potential benefits of SUDS. The cultural, provisioning, supporting, and regulating ecosystem services investigated in real cases have been studied and classified according to climatology (except for the control of urban hydrology, which has been widely corroborated). Although successful cases of runoff decontamination are numerous, there is heterogeneity in the results of the systems beyond those associated with climatic differences. The other ecosystem services have not been as widely studied, giving very variable and even negative results in some cases such as climate change control (in some instances, these techniques can emit greenhouse gases). Installations in temperate climates are, by far, the most studied. These services derive from the biological processes developed in green infrastructure and they depend on climate, so it would be advisable to carry out specific studies that could serve as the basis for a design that optimizes potential ecosystem services, avoiding possible disservices.

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (2014-2023) by Using Bibliometric Analysis Method

“…This could make it possible to create urban areas that can challenge climate change and urbanization and complete multifunctional, sustainable, and flood mitigation for regulating water flow, which should be considered an essential aspect when designing a sustainable urban drainage system that can deliver ecosystem services to the urban environment and urban water management system (Galarza-Molina et al, 2017). Protecting and securing the regulation of water-flow capacities of the urban ecosystem must be connected to related policies and choices of urban planning that deal with risk management (García & Santamarta, 8 July 2022). Stormwater design is evolving to create a robust and sustainable urban drainage system that can withstand the effects of urbanization (Gonçalves & Nucci, 2017).…”