Search Results (102)

Flood control infrastructure is essential for the development of cities and the population’s well-being. The goal is to protect human and economic resources by reducing the inundation area and controlling the flood level and peak discharges. Detention basins can do this by storing a large volume of water to be released after the peak discharge. By doing this, a large amount of energy is stored, which can be recovered via micro-hydropower. In addition, as the release flow is controlled and almost constant, Pumps as Turbines (PAT) could be a feasible and economic option in these cases. Thus, this study investigates the feasibility of micro-hydropower (MHP) in urban detention basins, using the Santa Lúcia detention basin in Belo Horizonte as a case study. The methodology involved hydrological modeling, hydraulic analysis, and economic and environmental assessment. The results demonstrated that PAT selection has a crucial role in the feasibility of the MHP, and exploiting rainfall with lower intensities but higher frequencies is more attractive. Using multiple PATs with different operating points also showed promising results in improving energy production. In addition to the economic benefits, the MHP in the detention basin produces minimal environmental impact and, as it exploits a wasted energy source, it also reduces the carbon footprint in the urban water cycle. Full article

The effects of climate change and urbanisation, such as more intense rainfall and changing land use patterns, are putting increasing pressure on urban drainage systems. This study proposes a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDSs) in mitigating flooding and managing stormwater in both current and future scenarios. The approach integrates geospatial data, including digital elevation models (DEMs) and land use information, to delineate catchments and characterise hydrological parameters. Historical rainfall records and hydrological modelling were employed to define two baseline storm events: an extreme storm involving 422 mm of rainfall over 2 h, and an average storm involving 2.84 mm of rainfall over 1 h and 18 min. Future scenarios were developed by updating these baseline events using annual rates of change in maximum and average precipitation derived from climate projections between 2025 and 2100. The analysis incorporates seven CMIP6 climate scenarios: SSP1-1.9, SSP1-2.6, SSP4-3.4, SSP4-2.5, SSP4-6.0, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5. A stochastic simulation of 1000 storms per year was carried out using a custom-built conceptual hydrological model based on CN and developed in Python, which reflects interannual variability. The results show that extreme storm volumes could increase by up to seven times and average storm volumes by up to two and a half times. Additionally, discharge peaks could exceed baseline values by up to 20% in some years, suggesting an increased occurrence of extreme runoff events. The methodology assesses SUDS performance by comparing runoff and hydrological responses between baseline and future estimates. This framework enables vulnerabilities and adaptation needs to be identified, ensuring the long-term effectiveness of SUDSs in managing urban flood risk. Addressing uncertainties in climate and land use projections emphasises the importance of integrating SUDS assessments into wider urban resilience strategies. Full article

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) represent an opportunity to use stormwater management as a mechanism to deliver multiple co-benefits. They can play a key role in urban climate change adaptation, restoring nature, and increasing health and social wellbeing. Despite these benefits, their uptake is limited with many practitioners reporting barriers to implementation. To explore these barriers, and to define actions to unlock scaling, our mixed-methods study explored comparative perceptions of SuDS practitioners within the UK. Survey research (n = 48) provided an overview of broad experiences across a range of SuDS practitioners. Main barriers described were access to funds, difficulty retrofitting, cost to maintain, and the ownership of SuDS. Main issues having the least available information to support SuDS scaling were conflicts with corporate identity, cost to maintain, and collaboration between various stakeholders. Follow-up interviews (n = 6) explored experiences among a contrasting subset of survey respondents: those who experienced the highest number of perceived barriers and those who experienced the fewest barriers to SuDS implementation. From these interviews, key themes were identified that categorized the barriers for SuDS implementations: people-related elements; limiting practicalities; and informational factors. The findings were differentiated between indirect barriers (i.e., soft barriers, such as individual practitioner knowledge and capacity gaps linked to poor knowledge exchange) and direct barriers (i.e., hard barriers including specific gaps in SuDS data and knowledge experienced more universally). The importance of differentiating between knowledge-based (indirect) barriers that can be unlocked by improved information-transfer solutions and actual (direct) barriers that need further considered approaches and the generation of new knowledge to overcome is highlighted. Evidence-based policy recommendations for governmental and SuDS-based organisations are presented. Full article

Technical retrofit Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDSs) are a suitable option in the numerous mitigation measures to reduce the amount of tyre wear entering the environment. In the study presented here, such a filter system was tested under extreme conditions at the ADAC Driving Safety Centre Berlin-Brandenburg. Despite a technical separation limit of 125 or 250 µm of the filter systems, particles > 6 µm were measured in the retained masses. In addition, the marker SBR was used to determine the residues of tyre wear in the filter system using the TED-GC-MS analysis method. The highest concentrations were found in the 20–63 µm fraction. The results indicate that tyre wear particles become smaller due to high forces generated by braking and cornering. Test stand investigations indicate a retention efficiency of the filter system of 2/3 of the tyre wear. Furthermore, the results show that the parameter ‘Total Suspended Solids < 63 µm’ (TSS₆₃) is a relevant evaluation parameter for the road runoff. Full article

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) represent a paradigm shift in stormwater management, offering holistic solutions to urban water challenges. This review examines SUDS principles, design strategies, effectiveness and barriers to implementation. SUDS prioritize infiltration and mimic natural hydrological processes to reduce flood risk, improve water quality and support ecosystems in urban environments. Effective SUDS design integrates different components such as permeable pavements, green roofs, and rain gardens, tailored to the local context. Evidence suggests that well-designed SUDS can mitigate peak flows, reduce runoff volumes, and purify water. However, barriers to widespread adoption include lack of awareness, upfront costs, and regulatory complexity. Overcoming these will require collaborative stakeholder action to prioritize education, policy support, and funding opportunities. Future research should focus on optimizing SUDS design, assessing long-term performance, and quantifying socio-economic benefits. By integrating SUDS into urban landscapes, cities can strengthen hydrological resilience, promote sustainability, and enrich urban life. Full article

Flooding hazards due to climate change are increasingly becoming a frequent global occurrence. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the various structural mitigation and adaptation strategies available to engineers and designers at various stages of road construction and rehabilitation to increase the resilience of roads to flooding damage. The criteria for categorising the various strategies available were the time of intervention with respect to the occurrence of the hazard. Thus, all studied strategies were separated into pre-construction design changes, post-construction mitigation and adaptation options like Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS). The main findings were that changing the specifications of commonly used materials can provide increased flood resilience, and a preliminary design for flooding can reduce post-flooding rehabilitation. The study can be used as a guide for the different options available to deliver a design that takes flooding into consideration. Full article

The expansion of cities in Sub-Saharan Africa has led to an increase in impervious surfaces, intensifying stormwater management challenges, especially in informal settlements situated in ecologically sensitive areas like wetlands. This urban growth has heightened flood risks and negatively impacted biodiversity, water quality, and socio-economic conditions, particularly during extreme weather events intensified by climate change. Nature-Based Solutions (NbSs), including Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDSs), offer sustainable strategies for managing stormwater and mitigating these adverse effects. However, the success of such solutions relies not only on their technical implementation but also on the social and institutional contexts within urban communities. Community-level governance is crucial in integrating NbSs into urban stormwater management frameworks. This research evaluates how community governance of NbSs, specifically SUDSs, can enhance stormwater management and flood resilience in Kampala, Uganda. Using an assessment framework grounded in the Policy Arrangement Approach (PAA)—which considers discourses, actors, resources, and rules of engagement—this study incorporates structural, social, and political factors that influence SUDS community governance performance. Concentrating on the Sembule zones within the Nalukolongo catchment area, this research investigates the impact of community governance dynamics on SUDS implementation. This study examines key aspects such as community engagement, resource management, and regulatory frameworks to assess the effectiveness of these initiatives, providing valuable insights for advancing nature-based urban stormwater management. Full article

The rainfall drainage characteristics of urban areas result in more surface runoff compared to soil surfaces. Conventional Urban Drainage Systems, CUDs, have disadvantages when managing this surface runoff, leading to urban water circulation issues such as flooding and depletion of groundwater. The performance of CUDs varies significantly depending on the clogging of grate inlets with various debris and shapes. To address these disadvantages, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, SUDs, have been proposed. This study compares the drainage efficiency of the two systems; using a physical model with an artificial rainfall simulator, an experimental study was conducted with respect to clogging type, clogging ratio, and rainfall intensity. Comparative analysis of peak flow rates and the peak time demonstrates the advantages of IRDs. As a result, IRDs are applicable to the mitigation of urban water circulation problems such as inundation. Full article

In recent decades, the impacts of urbanization on the hydrological cycle have led to an increase in the frequency and magnitude of urban flooding events, and this is also amplified by the effects of climate change. Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) provide a revolutionary change in this field, improving the sustainability and resilience of cities. This research explores the integration of different SuDS with the aim of significantly reducing both the flow volume and celerity of floods in a residual urban catchment area of the metropolitan city of Querétaro (Mèxico), where extreme rainfall frequently occurs. This catchment is a representative suburb of urban pressure and environmental degradation problems. Currently, managing storm water under climate uncertainty through a multi-disciplinary approach is a major concern in this urban area. A 1D–2D coupling model of shallow water equations, the finite volume method, an unstructured meshing method, and a hybrid parallel computing application defined the optimal configuration of SuDS at catchment scale to reduce the flood vulnerability in Querétaro. Specifically, in this paper, we explore the management issues of the proposed SuDS configuration that acts as a water resource system with multiple purposes. A generic simulation model called MODSIM was applied to simulate the designed urban drainage system under a balanced IPCC future climate scenario in terms of reliability, resilience and vulnerability against water scarcity. The proposed hierarchical Reliability–Resilience–Vulnerability approach appears to be effective in evaluating the system performance, showing that the complete satisfaction of non-essential water uses in Querétaro can be assured at a 65% rate of reliability for a large range of reservoir storage conditions. Full article

Climate change is arguably the greatest challenge facing cities today. Its severe consequences have created the need for sustainable urban planning. In this regard, Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) have contributed in recent years to alleviating environmental problems caused by soil sealing and enhancing the resilience of cities to climate change. However, in most cases, the level of implementation is limited to solving environmental problems caused by inadequate urban planning. To change this, in recent years some countries have proposed recommendations to integrate these systems into their urban planning regulations, but these have been general and have not defined specific measures. This paper proposes to achieve this goal by using case studies of three countries with similar characteristics (Spain, Italy and France). A common framework for the integration of SuDS in planning has been proposed that can be exported to other similar places. The urban scales of intervention have been defined (city, neighborhood and street), as well as the actions to be carried out (analysis, planning and regulatory measures) and the urban plans to which they should be applied. This proposal represents an advancement in the application of SuDS as a primary control measure. This breakthrough will significantly improve the resilience of the cities of the future, making them more resilient to the effects of weather and climate change. Full article

Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) or nature-based solutions (NBSs) are widely implemented to collect, store and infiltrate stormwater. The buildup of pollutants is expected in NBSs, and Dutch guidelines advise monitoring the topsoil of bio-swales every 5 years. In the Netherlands, almost every municipality has implemented bio-swales. Some municipalities have over 300 bio-swales, and monitoring all their NBSs is challenging due to cost and capacity. In this study, 20 locations where bio-swales with ages ranging between 10 and 20 years old were selected for a field investigation to answer the following question: is the soil quality of bio-swales after 10 years still acceptable? Portable XRF instruments were used to detect potential toxic elements (PTEs) for in situ measurements. The results showed that for copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb), 30%, 40% and 25% of the locations show values above the threshold and 5%, 20% and 0% above the intervention threshold, meaning immediate action should be taken. The results are of importance for stakeholders in (inter)national cities that implement, maintain, and monitor NBS. Knowledge of stormwater and soil quality related to long-term health risks from NBS enables urban planners to implement the most appropriate stormwater management strategies. With these research results, the Dutch guidelines for design, construction, and maintenance can be updated, and stakeholders are reminded that the monitoring of green infrastructure should be planned and executed every 5 years. Full article

Urban resilience must consider the ability of cities to cope with the effects of climate change. Community awareness raising and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs) are often mentioned in the literature as effective adaptation actions while the success of these solutions is highly context-dependent and improved planning procedures are urgently needed. In this framework, the URCA! project represents a good practice aiming to strengthen the resilience of urban areas by promoting the implementation of SUDs in territorial planning. The main objective of the present research deals with the role of participation in promoting the use of SUDs and their uptake in town planning and land management involving local communities, students, experts, local authorities, and enterprises. To this end, the research adopts a participatory approach to SUDs urban planning for three case studies in Italy selected under the criterion of maximum variation (Brescia, Genoa, and Matera). For the three case studies, participatory approaches are at different stages of development thus requiring appropriate ways of interacting and resulting in different impacts on decisions. Preliminary results, drivers, and barriers in the application of the participatory approach are discussed and compared in order to bring innovation into planning practices, stimulating a revision of typical governance mechanisms. Full article

The Spanish Army is planning to create a new Logistics Base in Córdoba, in a development known as “Project BLET” (85 agricultural hectares, developed into an industrial zone). The Sustainability Concept proposed here is framed within the context of the strategic management process as a Strategic Business Unit. Aligned with 2030 AGENDA, the above mentioned process focuses on efficient water management and is providing a drainage strategy based on the use of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDSs), as well as a water management plan that aims to consider rainfall as a key non-potable water resource. The purpose is to prepare a roadmap, based on the Project, and a methodology that guarantees the viability of the SuDS and its non-potable rainwater use. The final result could be a sustainable military logistics hub in Southern Europe, which would stand out for being a pioneer in the treatment of rainwater and have sustainability features that are intended to be certified and assessed by different institutions. Full article

Planning for resilient cities requires an evidence-based understanding of flood risk and the involvement of stakeholders and local actors. The paper addresses research developed within the URCA!—Urban Resilience to Climate Change: to activate the participatory mapping and decision support tool for enhancing sustainable urban drainage—project. A top-down/bottom-up participatory and flexible methodology for the conception of participatory mapping aimed at the planning and installation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) on the territory is then developed. The innovative methodology is applied and tested in the case study of the Sampierdarena district in Genoa, northern Italy. This research paper illustrates the development of a participatory map (Pmap) that can support the implementation of SUDS as mitigation/adaptation strategies, integrating technical assessment and containing community visions and expectations. Findings concerning the connections between proposed SUDS locations and their frequencies confirm the relevance of the commercial area and the main traffic lanes along, confirming that all zones characterized by intense vehicular and pedestrian flow are suitable for SUDS as a solution to contribute to urban flood resilience. The georeferenced and intergenerational Pmap may be integrated into a decision support system to be developed as a guidance tool for the public administration. Full article

This study addresses the growing interest in utilizing remote sensing tools for locating sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in urban environments. SuDS, recognized as Nature-based Solutions (NbS), play a crucial role in enhancing urban resilience against climate change. This study focuses on the calibration process required to establish a correlation between the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), derived from high-precision digital elevation models (DEMs), and soil moisture (SM) data obtained from satellite imaging. This calibration serves as a method to optimize the placement of sustainable urban drainage system vegetated techniques in urban areas. This study leveraged the exceptional resolution of PAZ satellite radar data to effectively detect variations in SM, particularly in grass-type vegetated land. The sensitivity of the X-band radar signal to moisture levels and changes in ground roughness proved valuable in tracking SM dynamics. The core of the study involved deriving the TWI from a high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM). The correlation between the TWI and SM values demonstrates robustness, with an R² value of 0.77. These findings significantly advance the calibration of TWI values with SM measurements, enhancing their practicality in identifying areas prone to water accumulation. The study’s outcomes provide valuable insights for guiding the strategic placement of SuDS in urban environments, contributing to the effective management of water-related challenges in the face of urbanization and climate change. Full article