Flood adaptation impacts of blue-green infrastructure through hydrosocial framework.

Abstract

Modern dualisms between society and nature affect understandings of “what water is?” and “how water fits into society?”, according to the hydrosocial cycle concept. Understanding the urban stormwater system within the tensions inherent in designing flood-resilient cities is crucial from a social, cultural, and ecological perspective. Therefore, it is essential to comprehend how the hydrosocial cycle altered the use of blue-green infrastructure over time and how these modifications reflect the values of urban waterscapes and urban flood adaptation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyse historical and contemporary perspectives on correlations between the hydrosocial cycle and blue-green infrastructure networks, which are beneficial to water-sensitive urban design principles. A comprehensive literature review and comparative analysis of two case studies of waterscape impact on public space based on the hydrosocial framework were used to conduct the research. This study employs comparative case studies to evaluate the implementation of the hydrosocial cycle by examining the dynamics of social power and structure, technology and infrastructure, and the materiality of water at each respective site. The results of this study indicate that urban landscape and engineering systems that are influenced by ecological and social values are advantageous to the current state of flood adaptation and urban runoff management. The comparison demonstrated that the implementation of blue-green infrastructure that incorporates the symbiotic values of society and nature offers opportunities for urban flood adaptation. In a nutshell, the integration of the hydrosocial cycle in the context of reducing flood susceptibility contributes to the enhancement of the existing framework by incorporating an analysis of societal interactions and utilisation of urban waterscapes, alongside a transition towards urban flood adaptation.