Abstract
Spain has been pinpointed as one of the European countries at major risk of extreme urban events. Thus, Spanish cities pursue new urban plans to increase their resilience. In this scenario, experiences in the implementation of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) have increased substantially. Nevertheless, few cities have developed a global urban strategy for SUDS, lacking, in many cases, a method to identify strategic areas to maximize their synergetic benefits. Furthermore, there is still a need for a holistic Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) framework that considers the four pillars of SUDS design. The city of Gijón, NW Spain, has been selected as a case study due to its environmental and climatic stresses. This research presents the methodology developed for this city, which aims to analyze the need for SUDS implementation throughout the identification of strategic areas. With this aim, a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) software and the MCDA Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) were proposed. The results show the potential for SUDS’ implementation, according to nine criteria related to the SUDS’ design pillars. We found that the areas where the implementation of SUDS would bring the greatest functional, environmental and social benefits are mainly located in consolidated urban areas.
Highlights
The increasing population of the world and migration from rural areas has caused a process of rapid urbanization
The outcomes of the analysis of the results associated with the criteria to measure the vulnerability to river and coastal flooding (Figure 4a) pointed out that the alternatives A.13 and A.14 reached the highest values, due to their location by the estuary of the main river flowing through the study area (Piles)
A.15 is the alternative with the highest percentage of floodable area because of coastal flooding (15.21%), A.6 is the alternative through which most of the route of the river Piles flows and A.3 is the location of the other main river in the municipality
Summary
The increasing population of the world and migration from rural areas has caused a process of rapid urbanization. In 1950, 30% of the human population lived in urban areas, increasing up to 55% by 2018, and being projected to reach 68% by 2050 as depicted in the United Nations’ (UN) latest study [1]. As the urban areas grow and more land is used for human activities, the hydrologic functions of the natural water cycle become increasingly altered [4]. This urbanization process creates impervious surfaces and compacted soils that negatively impacts stormwater runoff characteristics and decreases their infiltration capacity, influencing groundwater recharge, evaporation and evapotranspiration [5,6].
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