Navigating the definition of urban flooding: A conceptual and systematic review of the literature

Abstract

ABSTRACT Urban flooding is a pervasive global risk, posing a great challenge to urban planners, policymakers, and particularly communities. This paper reviews the literature to analyze how urban flooding is defined across scientific disciplines. Our objectives are to uncover the elements used to define urban flooding and evaluate how these elements can impact future research and practice. A key difficulty is the lack of a consistent, comprehensive definition that captures both physical and social dimensions of urban flooding. Current definitions often focus solely on physical aspects (e.g., rainfall, infrastructure) or social impacts, rarely integrating both. This fragmentation hinders effective flood risk management and interdisciplinary collaboration. Our contribution is a multifaceted definition incorporating spatial and social concerns, including water origins, built environment characteristics, and local community aspects. We introduce the ‘Urban Water Transect’ concept to illustrate the continuum of flood risk across urban zones, addressing a gap in the literature. The analysis reveals that many papers discuss flooding causes without providing an explicit definition. Urban flooding is predominantly defined based on water source, imperviousness, and drainage infrastructure. Future research should adopt an interdisciplinary perspective considering both physical and social aspects, potentially transforming urban flood risk management.