Abstract
Urban stormwater infrastructure is at an increased risk of being overwhelmed by pluvial flood events due to climate change. Currently, there are no global standards or frameworks for approaching urban rainfall adaptation policy. Such standards or frameworks would allow cities that have limited time, finances or research capacities to make more confident adaptation policy decisions based on a globally agreed theoretical basis. Additionally, while adaptation via blue-green infrastructure is often weighed against traditional grey infrastructure approaches, its choice must be considered within the context of additional policy alternatives involved in stormwater management. Using six global and developed cities, we explore to what extent a standardized hierarchy of urban rainfall adaptation techniques can be established through a combined Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. While regional and stakeholder differences emerge, our study demonstrates that green infrastructure undertaken by public bodies are the top policy alternative across the cities and stakeholder groups, and that there exists some consensus on best management practice techniques for urban stormwater adaptation.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Of the 170 matrices produced for the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), only 30 matrices were excluded for containing an undesirable level of uncertainty
We have identified four major trends in the perceptions of future stormwater management under climate change
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Changing rainfall patterns are forcing cities to embrace climate adaptation strategies. High-intensity rainfall or cloudburst events, which are only projected to increase in urban areas under climate change, overwhelm city infrastructure causing localized flooding and potential environmental, financial and social damages [1,2]. Regardless of whether a city is retrofitting legacy existing infrastructure or implementing new systems to manage 21st century growth, the need to create rainfall adaptation projects that can be implemented under current stresses while planning for future variability is almost universal
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