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Optimizing Green Infrastructure Design and Placement for Integrated Urban Watershed Management

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Kun Zhang

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN, USA
Interests: urban hydrology and hydraulics; stormwater management; data-model integration

Dr. Yang Yang

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Interests: stormwater management; machine learning; hydrological modeling

Dr. Gustavo H. Merten

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN, USA
Interests: solute transport; soil and water conservation; stormwater management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Green infrastructure (GI) has gained traction as a preferred stormwater management practice for its ability to mimic natural hydrologic conditions and remove stormwater pollutants. However, as a decentralized infrastructure, the performance of GI is highly variable and dependent on the local context. At the same time, trends in land development and climate variability can mask the system-wide benefit of GI and increase the difficulty of detecting and evaluating the integrated, watershed-scale hydrologic impact of GI. The emergence of data-driven analytics, advanced hydrologic models, and optimization techniques provides advanced tools to address this challenge. The objective of this Special Issue is to synthesize recent advances in data, instrumentation, modelling, and analysis focused on optimizing the integrated, system-wide benefit of GI at watershed scales. Interdisciplinary research is particularly welcomed.

Dr. Kun Zhang
Dr. Yang Yang
Dr. Gustavo H. Merten
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Keywords

urban watershed: green infrastructure
nature-based solutions
stormwater management
stormwater runoff
hydrologic modelling
machine learning
optimization
low impact development
sustainable drainage systems

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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31 pages, 3715 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Lifecycle Environmental Resilience of Urban Green Infrastructures Coping with Acute Disturbances and Chronic Stresses

by Fei Xue, Bo Luan, Yue Fan, Shiqi Xie, Xiaomin Yang, Jianing Luo and Ruxuan Zheng

Water 2024, 16(8), 1162; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16081162 - 19 Apr 2024

Viewed by 378

Abstract

Urban green infrastructure (UGI), a key component of nature-based solutions (NbSs), plays a vital role in enhancing urban resilience. Nonetheless, the absence of a thorough resilience evaluation for UGI has hindered the efficacy of its design and implementation. This article proposes an innovative urban environmental resilience index (ERI) framework designed to evaluate the lifecycle performance of UGI. First, a coupled environmental resilience evaluation system is proposed that encompasses indicators for the adaptation to acute disturbances and the mitigation of chronic pressures. Second, the inventive formulas for calculating the environmental resilience index are presented, which establish the weighting of indicators through Delphi-analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis, and the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), GaBi, and i-Tree models are employed for the quantitative assessment. Third, four representative UGI scenarios in urban built-up areas have been selected for comparative analysis and in-depth discussion by calculating the resilience index. This research presents UGI solutions as adaptive measures for “Black Swan” events and “Gray Rhino” phenomena, offering significant case studies and methodological frameworks which will inform future endeavours in green and sustainable urban development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimizing Green Infrastructure Design and Placement for Integrated Urban Watershed Management)

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Review

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18 pages, 4639 KiB

Open AccessReview

Global Paradigm Shifts in Urban Stormwater Management Optimization: A Bibliometric Analysis

by Mo Wang, Zhiyu Jiang, Rana Muhammad Adnan Ikram, Chuanhao Sun, Menghan Zhang and Jianjun Li

Water 2023, 15(23), 4122; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15234122 - 28 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1117

Abstract

Amidst the growing urgency to mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, urban flooding stands out as a critical concern, necessitating effective stormwater management strategies. This research presents a bibliometric analysis of the literature on urban stormwater management optimization from 2004 to 2023, with the aim of understanding how the field has responded to these escalating challenges. Aiming to map the evolution and current state of the field, this study employed a methodical approach, using CiteSpace to analyze publication trends, authorship patterns, and geographical distributions, as well as keyword and citation dynamics. The findings reveal a marked increase in research activity after 2014, with significant contributions observed between 2019 and 2022. Key research themes identified include low-impact development, green infrastructure, and stormwater management, with a notable shift towards hybrid grey–green infrastructure solutions that combine traditional and ecological elements. The prevalence of terms such as ‘best management practices’ and ‘Green Roofs’ in recent publications indicates a growing emphasis on practical, case-study-based research, particularly in green infrastructure technologies like bioretention cells. These insights underscore the field’s movement towards pragmatic, multi-objective optimization frameworks with tangible applications, guiding future research directions in this increasingly complex domain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimizing Green Infrastructure Design and Placement for Integrated Urban Watershed Management)

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