Abstract
Managing stormwater on urban surfaces with blue-green infrastructure (BGI) is being increasingly adopted as an alternative to conventional pipe-based stormwater management in cities. BGI combats water problems and provides multiple benefits for cities, including improved livability and enhanced biodiversity. The paper examines six municipality-led pilot projects from Beijing and Copenhagen, through a review of documents, site observations and interviews with project managers. Beijing’s projects attempt to divert from a pipe-based approach but are dominated by less BGI-based solutions; they could benefit from more integration of multiple benefits with stormwater management. Copenhagen’s projects combine stormwater management with amenity improvement, but lack focus on stormwater utilization. Reviewed municipality-led pilot projects are shown to play an important role in both testing new solutions and upscaling them in the process of developing more sustainable cities. Key lessons are extracted and a simple guideline synthesized. This guideline suggests necessary considerations for a holistic solution that combines stormwater management and urban space improvements. Key lessons for sustainable solutions include defining a clear water technique priority, targeting both small and big rain events, strengthening ‘vertical design’ and providing multiple benefits. An integrated stormwater management and landscape design process is a prerequisite to the meaningful implementation of these solutions. Research and documentation integrated with pilot projects will help upscale the practice at city scale.
Highlights
Cities nowadays face great challenges in the management of stormwater from frequent heavy rainfalls exacerbated by climate change, water stress and deterioration of the water environment, all of which impede efforts to improve living conditions
The urban landscape can contribute to these new solutions by harnessing the power of some overlapping concepts and terms such as sustainable drainage system (SUDS), low impact development (LID), water sensitive urban design (WSUD), green infrastructure (BGI), and sponge city (SC) [2,3]
All three projects prioritize the retention stormwater management (SWM) technique, which contributes to both flood control and improves water balance and flood control
Summary
Cities nowadays face great challenges in the management of stormwater from frequent heavy rainfalls exacerbated by climate change, water stress and deterioration of the water environment, all of which impede efforts to improve living conditions. Water 2019, 11, 2024 implemented by dedicated but often fringe actors in cities around the world These practices are mainly driven by each city’s own water stress [1]. The blue-green infrastructure (BGI) approach seeks to mitigate flooding and improve the quality of stormwater discharge by applying decentralized blue-green elements that mimic the natural hydrograph. These elements manage stormwater through processes of infiltration, evapotranspiration, retention, detention and slow transport, while providing such multiple benefits to cities as conserving local water resources, improving livability and supporting biodiversity [2]. This study has been motivated by a desire to learn practical lessons and to bridge the gap between research and practice
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