Re-thinking urban flood management – time for a regime shift

Summary, in English

Urban flooding is of growing concern due to increasing densification of urban areas, changes in land use, and climate change. The traditional engineering approach to flooding is designing single-purpose drainage systems, dams, and levees. These methods, however, are known to increase the long-term flood risk and harm the riverine ecosystems in urban as well as rural areas. In the present paper, we depart from resilience theory and suggest a concept to improve urban flood resilience. We identify areas where contemporary challenges call for improved collaborative urban flood management. The concept emphasizes resiliency and achieved synergy between increased capacity to handle stormwater runoff and improved experiential and functional quality of the urban environments. We identify research needs as well as experiments for improved sustainable and resilient stormwater management namely, flexibility of stormwater systems, energy use reduction, efficient land use, priority of transport and socioeconomic nexus, climate change impact, securing critical infrastructure, and resolving questions regarding responsibilities.

• Author: Johanna Sörensen; Andreas Persson; Catharina Sternudd; Henrik Aspegren; Jerry Nilsson; Jonas Nordström; Karin Jönsson; MISAGH MOTTAGHI; Per Becker; Petter Pilesjö; Rolf Larsson; Ronny Berndtsson; Shifteh Mobini
• Department/s: Division of Water Resources Engineering; Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science; Centre for Geographical Information Systems (GIS Centre); Department of Architecture and Built Environment; Division of Chemical Engineering; AgriFood Economics Centre, Lund University School of Economics and Management; Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety; Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES); MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World; LTH Profile Area: Water
• Publishing year: 2016-08-04
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Water
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 8
• Full text: - 2 MB; Download statistics
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w8080332
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Topic: Engineering and Technology; Social Sciences
• Keywords: Water; Flood Management; urban flooding; resilience; climate change adaptation; blue-green urban solutions
• Status: Published
• Project: Sustainable Urban Flood Management; Urban flooding in a changing climate
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2073-4441