Abstract
Climate change and rapid urbanization have severe impacts on urban flood regulation ecosystem services (UFRES). Quantifying the UFRES has attracted increasing attention for urban sustainable development. However, few studies have focused on how to identify urban flood regulation priority areas. In this study, we simulated urban surface runoff by using the soil conservation services-curve number model, and quantified UFRES supply and demand by using relative indicators (i.e., runoff reduction ratio and urban vulnerability) at the subdistrict scale in Beijing, China. Then, an urban flood regulation priority index was developed by integrating UFRES demand and supply, and further used to identify priority areas. The results show that the mean runoff reduction ratio in Beijing decreased from 38.70% (for a 1-year rainfall return period) to 24.74% (for a 100-year rainfall return period). Subdistricts with low UFRES supply were mainly located in the urban central area and the southeastern zone, while subdistricts with high UFRES demand were mainly located in the urban central region. Meanwhile, places with high priority for flood regulation were mainly located in the inner city, and low priority areas were mainly located in northwestern, southwestern, and northeastern Beijing. Our results also imply that the urban flood regulation priority index is an effective indicator to identify urban flood regulation priority areas. These findings could provide urban planners with a comprehensive understanding of UFRES and scientific guidance to improve them.
Highlights
Climate change will increase global exposure to flooding [1,2]
The relationship between Urban flood regulation ecosystem services (UFRES) supply and urban flood regulation priority index (UFRPI) is non-linear with a negative correlation, which indicates that the subdistricts with low UFRES supply, or runoff reduction ratio, have low UFRPI
Our results are consistent with the assumption that an urban flood regulation priority area should distribute in a high demand and high flood-risk area [33], and this study further demonstrates UFPRI is an effective indicator to identify urban flood regulation priority areas
Summary
Climate change will increase global exposure to flooding [1,2]. Urban flooding has become one of the most severe natural hazards around the world, especially in coastal cities due to the increase of extreme precipitation events and the rise of sea level [3,4,5], and more than 600 cities worldwide face serious flood risks [6]. Urban flood regulation ecosystem services (UFRES) refer to the capacity of cities to retain storm water and reduce surface runoff as determined by soil, land use, and topography, which can reduce the negative impacts of storm water on human safety, infrastructure, and living environment quality in urban ecosystems, such as canopy interception by vegetation, soil water storage, and water storage capacity of wetlands and rivers [16,17,18,19,20]. Due to the loss of urban green spaces during the urbanization process in Beijing, urban surface runoff regulation capacity decreased by 6% from 2000 to 2010 [21] All these evidences indicate urban green spaces play an important role in enhancing the flood regulation services and improving urban resilience. UFRES is related to the integration of urban green-blue infrastructure, but is affected by urban population density and the pattern of functional zones in the city [22,23]
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