Search results
1 – 10 of over 1000The problem of urban drainage has become more serious with the rapid development of urban construction. The idea of combining geographic information system (GIS) technology with…
Abstract
The problem of urban drainage has become more serious with the rapid development of urban construction. The idea of combining geographic information system (GIS) technology with flood control in solving the urban drainage problem has received increasing attention. The idea and process of GIS as the key technology in vertical planning were analyzed in this study based on the GIS technology characteristics. This paper presents the new idea of integrating flood control and drainage mode into vertical planning and the optimization method in vertical planning. Taking the vertical planning of the north shore of Xiaoqing River in Ji'nan as an example, the model of the present scenario and the corresponding terrain model of the different flood control drainage standards were established. The standard model of the flood control and drainage of Xiaoqing River was determined through comparison. The relationship between vertical planning, flood control, and drainage mode was analyzed and optimized on the basis of the practical engineering results. Improving the optimization measures can result in the good convergence of vertical planning and drainage content, which is conducive to the development of urban flood control.
Details
Keywords
Imon Chowdhooree, Tasfin Aziz, Md. Jubaer Rashid and Meherab Hossain
Urban areas, especially in the coastal region of Bangladesh, face environmental degradation due to rapid urbanization, uncontrolled socio-economic activities and experiencing the…
Abstract
Purpose
Urban areas, especially in the coastal region of Bangladesh, face environmental degradation due to rapid urbanization, uncontrolled socio-economic activities and experiencing the adverse impacts of climate change. Nature-based solutions (NbS) as options for restoring, preserving, maintaining and elevating natural features or systems are becoming popular for reducing vulnerabilities caused either by natural hazards or human-induced activities. With this understanding, this study aims to explore the need of practicing NbS by studying the condition of a tidal canal (known as Thakurani Khal) and its peripheral areas of Mongla Port Municipality, a coastal and seaport town in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
This case study-based research uses multiple inquiries, including focus group discussions, pair-wise comparison, observation, GIS-based mapping, key informant interviews and secondary climate data review, to understand the spatial development of the area and community reactions to the changes in the urban environment.
Findings
The natural water flow of this canal is controlled by sluice gates that indirectly allowed the dweller to encroach its lands and convert the canal into a solid waste dumping area. These human-induced activities as well as the climate change-induced events (i.e. extreme heat, intensive and irregular rainfall, increased number of cyclones, etc.) have made the adjacent areas prone to waterlogging and drainage congestion. In this context, the revival of the original natural quality of the canal has been identified as an alternative to ensuring an adaptive urban environment.
Originality/value
This research highlights the importance of practicing NbS for developing urban resilience in the context of climate change.
Details
Keywords
Tong Wen, Wen Chen, Liang Zhang and Xiaoming Liu
Under the background of rapid urbanization, all kinds of urban water problems have gradually come into being: local flooding frequently happens, water environment is deteriorated…
Abstract
Under the background of rapid urbanization, all kinds of urban water problems have gradually come into being: local flooding frequently happens, water environment is deteriorated, water-supply is in tension, etc. Meanwhile, with rapid development of higher education in China, campus area and scale are gradually expanding, but traditional campus construction has many drawbacks. In order to promote sponge campus planning and construction of universities in hilly areas and provide demonstration windows for sponge city construction, based on deficiencies of campus construction of Hunan City University in the aspect of water resource utilization, we used ArcGis spatial analysis method, simulation method and comparative analysis method on Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to establish sponge campus construction indexes, content system and optimal design strategies with objectives of campus water safety, water environment and water resource utilization. Results indicate that: difference between sponge campus planning and traditional campus planning mainly lies in rainfall management. We combed the design process of sponge campus planning in hilly areas from the perspective of rainfall management, and simulated the process of sponge facilities controlling the rainfall in the campus via computer model to verify reasonability of sponge facility planning and select the optimal planning and construction plan. This study has defined design process of sponge campus planning in hilly areas to a certain degree and provided a research basis for sponge campus planning and construction of universities, setting up a typical example and driving effects on solving urban local flooding problem and rainfall resource utilization in hilly areas.
Details
Keywords
Wenping Xu, Jinting Cong and David G. Proverbs
The purpose of this study is to undertake an evaluation of the resilient capacity of the infrastructure systems in the city of Wuhan. This evaluation focuses on the ability of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to undertake an evaluation of the resilient capacity of the infrastructure systems in the city of Wuhan. This evaluation focuses on the ability of the infrastructure to cope with extreme weather from multiple dimensions and to propose effective interventions against such risks.
Design/methodology/approach
This research draws on a review and synthesis of the theory of resilience and adopts the literature induction method to build an evaluation index for five urban systems, namely: roads; water supply and drainage; energy and power; urban disaster reduction; and communications. Index data from the period of 1990–2019 are combined with the views of experts from Wuhan and analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) to calculate the weightings of the five urban systems. A fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is then used to investigate the resilient capacity of these five urban infrastructure systems in the city.
Findings
Generally, the results show that the resilience of the infrastructure systems in Wuhan are at a high level. Based on the results, the communications and roads systems are found to have higher levels of resilience, while the disaster mitigation system is found to have a relatively low level of resilience. Recommendations are suggested to help improve resilience and prioritize investments in the development of the city's infrastructure systems.
Research limitations/implications
The development of these specific indicators and quantitative requirements have not been studied in detail, so a more comprehensive, systematic evaluation of quantitative indicators and methods of urban infrastructure resilience is still required. In addition, the research on the resilience of urban infrastructure under extreme weather is still in its infancy, and it is essential to further increase the quantitative assessment of the resilience of urban infrastructure under construction. This will also be indispensable information in the subsequent implementation of a resilient planning process.
Originality/value
This research builds a rigorous and reliable evaluation model that avoids any subjective bias in the results and represents a new approach to evaluate the resilience of the infrastructure systems in the city of Wuhan, which could be applied to other cities.
Details
Keywords
Frank Warwick and Susanne Charlesworth
Sustainable drainage (SUDS) techniques seek to address problems associated with excess water quantity, poor water quality, and attempt to improve environmental quality. SUDS have…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainable drainage (SUDS) techniques seek to address problems associated with excess water quantity, poor water quality, and attempt to improve environmental quality. SUDS have also been proposed as suitable for adapting to and mitigating climate change. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contribution of SUDS to carbon mitigation for a local planning authority.
Design/methodology/approach
Carbon sequestration rates of SUDS techniques were obtained from published literature. A Geographical Information System was used to identify potential sites for future SUDS implementation across the area covered by a local planning authority, Coventry, UK. The carbon mitigation potential of different SUDS techniques was estimated, taking account of land cover and land use limitations on new build and retrofit implementation.
Findings
Vegetated SUDS in new developments and retrofit green roofs provided the greatest potential for carbon storage in this urban setting.
Research limitations/implications
This study undertook a rapid assessment of the carbon mitigation that SUDS offers in an urbanised environment. The impact of factors such as greenhouse gas emissions from SUDS devices, management regimes and embedded carbon in engineered structures was not taken into account. The mitigation potential of associated shading and insulation by vegetated SUDS was not evaluated.
Practical implications
Retrofit of, for example, green roofs should be prioritised to take advantage of SUDS for climate change mitigation. The relatively low level of carbon stored over a 15‐year analysis period compared to the scale of forecast emissions revealed the extent of carbon mitigation challenges facing Coventry.
Originality/value
This study provides a methodology to evaluate the carbon mitigation potential of SUDS in an urban setting. Current UK legislative and regulatory emphasis focuses on new build. However, retrofit approaches appear to offer greater potential for carbon sequestration.
Details
Keywords
Ariyaningsih, Vibhas Sukhwani and Rajib Shaw
The purpose of this paper is to examine the inter- and intra-relationships between climate change and urban flood risk in Balikpapan city.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the inter- and intra-relationships between climate change and urban flood risk in Balikpapan city.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a qualitative method by applying the driver–pressure–state–impact–response (DPSIR) framework, which helps to determine the strategies for reducing flood vulnerability in response to drivers, pressures, states and impacts. A secondary survey was conducted to understand the DPSIR.
Findings
The key drivers are identified as the population growth, land-use change, climate change and urbanization. Secondary data show that population growth due to urbanization in Balikpapan city is very high, which means that there is a lot of demand for land in the city, and the city’s current responses are mostly focused on building flood control and prevention infrastructures like detention ponds, zero Q technology policies and green open space. The study reveals that the responses that have been implemented in Balikpapan are mostly ineffective problem-solving, which cannot reduce vulnerability to flooding for the long term.
Originality/value
To the author’s knowledge, this is the first instance of the DPSIR framework being applied to Balikpapan city. It is, therefore, hoped that the study results will provide feasible directions to the city government for managing the future flood risks
Details
Keywords
Oluwayemi A. Oladunjoye, David G. Proverbs, Beck Collins and Hong Xiao
The Environment Agency estimates that one in six homes in England (approximately 5.2m properties) are at risk from flooding and 185,000 commercial properties are located in…
Abstract
Purpose
The Environment Agency estimates that one in six homes in England (approximately 5.2m properties) are at risk from flooding and 185,000 commercial properties are located in flood-prone areas. Further, an estimate of 10,000 new homes are built on flood plains yearly. The UK has witnessed a significant increase in flood events over the past 10 years. During this period, there has been growing research attention into measures to mitigate the effects of flooding, including the benefits of deploying sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDs) in new developments or as a retrofit. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a cost-benefit analysis model for the retrofit of SuDs focusing on the potential for improved flood risk mitigation in the context of commercial properties.
Design/methodology/approach
A synthesis of flood risk management and SuDs literature is used to inform the development of a conceptual cost-benefit analysis model for the retrofit of SuDs and focusing on the potential for improved flood risk mitigation in the context of commercial properties.
Findings
SuDs have been applied successfully in different parts of the world; however, the uptake of SuDs, in particular, the retrofit of SuDs, has been restricted by a number of issues including a lack of experience and trust in their performance and a lack of understanding in their true benefits. In particular, there is the limited experience of retrofitting SuDs and there are no well-established procedures for evaluating the feasibility, value or cost effectiveness of doing this.
Social implications
This offers the potential to support the UK government’s flood risk management policy by helping to increase the resilience of properties, whilst offering other benefits to communities such as improvements in air quality and biodiversity and also presenting a clearer understanding of the monetary and non-monetary implication to owners of commercial properties for a more informed and acceptable uptake of SuDs retrofit.
Originality/value
The proposed model will allow a more comprehensive understanding of the costs and associated benefits associated with SuDs retrofit, highlighting the flood risk mitigation benefits that might accrue over a period of time for commercial property.
Details
Keywords
Biljana D. Radojevic, Pascal Breil and B. Chocat
Global change results both from climatic and land practice evolution in response to anthropogenic needs for development and human safety. The purpose of this paper is to describe…
Abstract
Purpose
Global change results both from climatic and land practice evolution in response to anthropogenic needs for development and human safety. The purpose of this paper is to describe a method to assess the respective effect of both sources of change on the flood regimes.
Design/methodology/approach
The research takes place in the Western periurban part of Lyon (France), which is characterized by a rapidly expanding, scattered urban development since the 1970s. An increase in frequency of large floods is reported. At the same time, a long daily rainfall time series exhibits sensitive changes in rainfall durations and intensities. Independent analysis of global change components is performed using observed rainfall and land‐use data from two disconnected decades. A marked difference in natural climatic regime variability between decades is used as a surrogate to study effect of climate change.
Findings
Anthropogenic activity at the observed rate of land use change, in particular urban change, mainly influences the frequent flood distribution. The observed large flood increase results both of longer rainfall events and more heavy daily rainfall. From simulations, a 43 percent urban cover as planned from 2025 projection would have a very sensitive effect also on larger floods, giving the hand to a more anthropogenic‐based flood control.
Originality/value
Despite an expected increase in rainfall and flow variability regimes as a result of climate change and a projected growing of the world urban population, there is a lack of methodology to address combination of both processes on the flood regimes. A method is proposed to judge on the respective importance and interplay of these processes.
Details
Keywords
Niv Yonat, Shabtai Isaac and Igal M. Shohet
The purpose of this research is to provide a theoretical and practical theory and application that provides understanding and means to manage complex infrastructures.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to provide a theoretical and practical theory and application that provides understanding and means to manage complex infrastructures.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research, complexity, nonlinear, noncontinuous effects and aleatoric and data unknowns are bypassed by directly addressing systems' responses. Graph theory, statistics and digital signal processing (DSP) tools are applied within a theoretical framework of the theory of faults (ToF). Motivational complex infrastructure systems (CISs) are difficult to model. Data are often missing or erroneous, changes are not well documented and processes are not well understood. On top of it, under complexity, stalwart analytical tools have limited predictive power. The aleatoric risk, such as rain and risk cascading from interconnected infrastructures, is unpredictable. Mitigation, response and recovery efforts are adversely affected.
Findings
The theory and application are presented and demonstrated by a step-by-step development of an application to a municipal drainage system. A database of faults is analyzed to produce system statistics, spatio-temporal morphology, behavior and traits. The gained understanding is compared to the physical system's design and to its modus operandi. Implications for design and maintenance are inferred; DSP tools to manage the system in real time are developed.
Research limitations/implications
Sociological systems are interest driven. Some events are intentionally created and directed to the benefit and detriment of the opposing parties in a project. Those events may be explained and possibly predicted by understanding power plays, not power functions. For those events, sociological game theories provide better explanatory value than mathematical gain theories.
Practical implications
The theory provides a thematic network for modeling and resolving aleatoric uncertainty in engineering and sociological systems. The framework may be elaborated to fields such as energy, healthcare and critical infrastructure.
Social implications
ToF provides a framework for the modeling and prediction of faults generated by inherent aleatoric uncertainties in social and technological systems. Therefore, the framework and theory lay the basis for automated monitoring and control of aleatoric uncertainties such as mechanical failures and human errors and the development of mitigation systems.
Originality/value
The contribution of this research is in the provision of an explicatory theory and a management paradigm for complex systems. This theory is applicable to a wide variety of fields from facilities and construction project management to maintenance and from academic studies to commercial use.
Details
Keywords
Benedetta Lucchitta and Edoardo Croci
The economic valuation of the ecosystem services (ES) provided by nature-based solutions in cities is not an easy task. In fact, various environmental goods and services do not…
Abstract
The economic valuation of the ecosystem services (ES) provided by nature-based solutions in cities is not an easy task. In fact, various environmental goods and services do not have a market price that allows to quantify their value. This leads to an underestimation of the value of nature in cities. As a result, their critical contributions are not considered in public, corporate, and individual decision-making. The logic behind ecosystem valuation is to unveil the complexities of socioecological relationships, to make explicit how human decisions would affect ES values, and to express these value changes in units. This will allow considering the benefits provided by ES in public decision-making processes. The contribution aims to identify and analyze the most used methodologies adopted at the urban level for the valuation of ES. In total, six methodologies have been analyzed for the valuation of the provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Finally, an interpretation framework has been defined to summarize the main findings.
Details