Optimizing urban green infrastructure using a highly detailed surface modeling approach

Abstract

Urban trees and forests show a better ecosystem with many benefits, including pure air quality. The development of urban green infrastructure (UGI) creates a better management system that greatly impacts social values in an urban system. The UGI and construction activities are receiving much attention for their effectiveness in addressing various urban ecological, social and economic issues. Using green infrastructure in stormwater management can reduce the influence on urban sewerage systems and, eventually, on building water resources. The main goal of the research is to optimize the green infrastructure to provide a less-pollution, well-organized, and pleasurable environment for the inhabitants. Various models are used to study the present rainfall-runoff scenario, but the stormwater management model (SWMM) is the most preferable and suggested model. Once the parameters are accessed, optimizing the green infrastructure (GI) will be easy. A complete SWMM model is evaluated over the complete surface, and a hydrological measurement is presented. The evaluation study presents various component percentages: asphalt (37%), green (27%), ceiling (21%), grit (12%), and cemented area (2%), which provides rainproof coverage of approximately 60%. A design is developed about the diverse events of GI in urban exploiting the SWMM and demonstrates its stimulus on the rainfall-runoff behaviour. In recent years, very little attention has been given to green spaces in urban areas, which not only increases pollution but also decreases the urbanization. Therefore, urban green spaces are more important to improve air quality and resident living standards. Over the given scenario and the rainfall event, a decline of the quantitative discharge parameters is evident, such as discharge volume (i.e., from 3.6 to 61.8) and the peak discharge rate (i.e., from 5.4 to 62.7%). The simulation results show that green areas give high satisfaction with low construction costs, which shows the superlative performance ratio of the examined measures. From the investigation, it is also recommended to have green areas and public spaces in impervious urban areas, which greatly reduced the runoff in the project area.