Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Water Management


Book Description

Water plays an essential role in the development and functioning of a city, but could also be a key risk factor for urban pluvial flooding, which may occur more frequently in the context of future climate change. The traditional means of flood risk management relied heavily on engineering measures, or the use of “gray” infrastructure. Recently, there has been a call to integrate nature-based solutions (NBS), which make use of natural processes and ecosystem services, with conventional engineering approaches. NBS infrastructures and designs pay great attention to ecosystem services considerations in assessing their induced hydrological processes, as well as in managing the stormwater and mitigating urban flood and droughts. Nevertheless, compared with grey infrastructure, larger space could be demanded for NBS, while the buffer effect for NBS in extremes events is still uncertain for evaluation.