The Low-Impact Development Demand Index: A New Approach to Identifying Locations for LID

Abstract

The primary goal of low impact development (LID) is to capture urban stormwater runoff; however, multiple indirect benefits (environmental and socioeconomic benefits) also exist (e.g., improvements to human health and decreased air pollution). Identifying sites with the highest demand or need for LID ensures the maximization of all benefits. This is a spatial decision-making problem that has not been widely addressed in the literature and was the focus of this research. Previous research has focused on finding feasible sites for installing LID, whilst only considering insufficient criteria which represent the benefits of LID (either neglecting the hydrological and hydraulic benefits or indirect benefits). This research considered the hydrological and hydraulic, environmental, and socioeconomic benefits of LID to identify sites with the highest demand for LID. Specifically, a geospatial framework was proposed that uses publicly available data, hydrological-hydraulic principles, and a simple additive weighting (SAW) method within a hierarchical decision-making model. Three indices were developed to determine the LID demand: (1) hydrological-hydraulic index (HHI), (2) socioeconomic index (SEI), and (3) environmental index (ENI). The HHI was developed based on a heuristic model using hydrological-hydraulic principles and validated against the results of a physical model, the Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System model (HEC-HMS). The other two indices were generated using the SAW hierarchical model and then incorporated into the HHI index to generate the LID demand index (LIDDI). The framework was applied to the City of Toronto, yielding results that are validated against historical flooding records.

Seleção de Áreas Prioritárias para Instalação de Medidas de Desenvolvimento Urbano de Baixo Impacto: O Caso do Bairro de Bodocongó em Campina Grande, PB

“…O desenvolvimento urbano sustentável, através de medidas estruturais e não estruturais, preza pela conservação ambiental, melhorando a qualidade de vida da população (Tucci 2008;Marcatto et al 2016). Dentro dessa abordagem, o Desenvolvimento Urbano de Baixo Impacto utilizase de estratégias que facilitam o desenvolvimento de projetos adaptados à topografia natural, possibilitando o controle do escoamento das águas pluviais, mimetizando o comportamento natural (Tavanti & Barbassa 2012;Kaykhosravi et al 2019).…”

An Analysis of Stormwater Management Variants in Urban Catchments

“…An increase of social and logistical problems and the deterioration of the natural environment are negative consequences of urbanization [4][5][6]. In order to ensure the maintenance of the living standards that are expected by residents, who are increasing in number, it is necessary to properly maintain, operate [7,8], and modernize a city's infrastructure [9,10] and to implement such in accordance with the principles of sustainable development [11,12]. In many cases, urban development is constrained by the possibilities of municipal infrastructure, especially the one used to drain wastewater and stormwater [13,14].…”

Urbanization under a Changing Climate–Impacts on Hydrology

“…While at first glance the submissions to this special issue may seem disparate, they are however, all intimately connected to urban hydrology and most importantly, they span the wide range of scales of observation and consequences of urban hydrology. From the near microscopic scale [2] to meter scale [3,4] to km scale [5][6][7][8], this special issue effectively brings awareness and attention to the range of scales at which these phenomena manifest, and the responses that are necessary if societies are to truly become resilient. Spatial scale is not the only variant-temporal scales also vary across the study of urbanization and climate change impacts.…”

“…Expanding the spatial scale even further, two articles ( [5,7]) looked at locating LIDs in urban areas by creating a new approach to identify optimal locations for LIDs. Kaykhosravi et al [7] presented a highly novel approach on how to incorporate LID in planning through a useable, simple, but rigorous index for determining the optimal location of an LID.…”

“…At the municipal city scale, Kaykhosravi et al [5] provided an examination of how climate change and urbanization combine to increase the risk of flooding in urban areas and how the demand for the stormwater mitigating benefits of LIDs will improve or change under these changing conditions. This seminal work shows conclusively using a variety of scenarios for both urbanization and climate change, that demand for LIDs will increase and how; and most importantly, shows how the demand varies depending on the climate, and of course, the nature of the increase in urbanization and urban form.…”