Case Studies of Green Infrastructure Adoption

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 13827

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, 233 S Wacker Dr 800, Chicago, IL 60606, USA
Interests: quantify hydrological changes; assess water quality; remote sensing; hydrological modeling; data analytics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As documented with years of research and science-based information, urban development  without sound stormwater management strategies often results in drastic alterations of natural hydrological processes. Alternative stormwater management techniques have gained worldwide popularity as an approach to minimize the unintended effects of urban expansion while mimicking a site’s pre-development hydrology. Began as an alternative to traditional stormwater management, the concept is known as low impact development (LID) in the United States and Canada, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in the United Kingdom, water sensitive urban design (WSUD) in Australia, and The Sponge City Program in China; all with the same underlying principle – protect, restore, or mimic the natural water cycle. Alternative stormwater management practices aim at integrating ecological and environmental considerations into all phases of urban planning, design, and construction.

In recent years, the term “green infrastructure” (GI) has increasingly been used to encompass alternative stormwater management techniques, striving to harness Mother Nature for providing critical ecosystem services to communities living in urban areas and to safeguard environmental quality. While LID refers to site-level stormwater control measures, GI generally refers to a coordinated effort to utilize these distributed practices for reproducing pre-development hydrology. Green infrastructure is a movement, a big picture viewpoint of a community or watershed planning and design for LID implementation. The large-scale adoption of LID techniques is currently not widely documented in the literature. For this Special Issue, we invite submissions that present case studies to showcase LID implementation at large scales. Studies that utilize field monitoring, computational modeling, and inter-disciplinary approaches as well as reviews of case studies, are welcome. We also encourage submission of papers with negative results to generate discussions and ideas for further research.

Dr. Laurent Ahiablame
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • urbanization
  • urban hydrology
  • ecosystem services
  • lab and field data collection
  • computational modeling

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 3780 KiB  
Article
Optimal Planning of Low-Impact Development for TSS Control in the Upper Area of the Cau Bay River Basin, Vietnam
by Dang Minh Hai
Water 2020, 12(2), 533; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020533 - 14 Feb 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3383
Abstract
Recently, an increase in impervious area induced by the process of urbanization has significantly affected the quantity and quality of urban surface runoff. Among the pollutants of the storm flow, total suspended solids (TSS) are an extremely important cause of water quality deterioration. [...] Read more.
Recently, an increase in impervious area induced by the process of urbanization has significantly affected the quantity and quality of urban surface runoff. Among the pollutants of the storm flow, total suspended solids (TSS) are an extremely important cause of water quality deterioration. This paper aims to use the integrated nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA II)–Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) method to find optimal Low-Impact Development (LID) plans which ensure maximum TSS load reduction and minimum total relative cost. Green roofs, permeable pavements, and tree boxes with fixed parameters and unit costs were considered for seeking optimal planning alternatives in the Cau Bay river basin. The optimization process yielded a cost–effectiveness curve, which relates cost of LID implementation with its corresponding TSS reduction efficiencies. The advantage of the optimization approach was clarified when, with a defined cost of LID implementation, there was a significant difference in TSS reduction efficiencies between the optimal and non-optimal alternatives. The increase in return periods of rainfall patterns not only resulted in a reduction in the TSS removal efficiencies of LID practices at the outfall of the study area, but also spatially changed in terms of the TSS removal efficiencies of the sub-catchments. The return period of the rainfall patterns utilized for LID design should not exceed 2 years. The simulation–multi-optimization approach facilitates integration of LID practice plans into the urban infrastructure master plans in Vietnam. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Case Studies of Green Infrastructure Adoption)
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19 pages, 2463 KiB  
Article
WinSLAMM Simulation of Hydrologic Performance of Permeable Pavements—A Case Study in the Semi-Arid Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, United States
by Taufiqul Alam, Ahmed Mahmoud, Kim D. Jones, Juan César Bezares-Cruz and Javier Guerrero
Water 2019, 11(9), 1865; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11091865 - 8 Sep 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3883
Abstract
This study used the Source Loading and Management Model for Windows (WinSLAMM) to develop a set of calibrated hydrologic models for three types of regional permeable pavements—porous concrete pavement (PCP), permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP), and interlocking block pavement with gravel (IBPG). The [...] Read more.
This study used the Source Loading and Management Model for Windows (WinSLAMM) to develop a set of calibrated hydrologic models for three types of regional permeable pavements—porous concrete pavement (PCP), permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP), and interlocking block pavement with gravel (IBPG). The objective was to assess the hydrologic performance of permeable pavements, including the runoff depth, peak discharge, percentage increment in runoff reduction of pavements as a function of rainfall depth, development area, and base aggregate porosity, respectively. The permeable pavements were monitored over a wide range of rainfall events in the semi-arid Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Data regarding rainfall intensities, source characterizations, runoff coefficients, and pavement design were initialized as WinSLAMM input. Validation results showed that the calibrated models could over or under-predict runoff reduction within a 30% error range. PCP and IBPG were very effective and could be capable of handling storms as large as 50-year frequency over a 24-h time period. The modeling results showed that PCP might require a 50–60% lesser footprint area as compared to PICP and IBPG, respectively. Additionally, PCP might be able to store 30% additional runoff if the porosity of base aggregates was increased by 40%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Case Studies of Green Infrastructure Adoption)
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Review

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14 pages, 766 KiB  
Review
A Synthesis of Social and Economic Benefits Linked to Green Infrastructure
by Ranish Shakya and Laurent Ahiablame
Water 2021, 13(24), 3651; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13243651 - 20 Dec 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5520
Abstract
Green infrastructure (GI) is a land development approach that uses a network of natural and built areas and waterways to create healthier urban environments. This study presents a synthesis of GI planning and adoption in 16 cities selected from around the world; 12 [...] Read more.
Green infrastructure (GI) is a land development approach that uses a network of natural and built areas and waterways to create healthier urban environments. This study presents a synthesis of GI planning and adoption in 16 cities selected from around the world; 12 of these cities are located in the United States. The study highlights key socio-economic benefits associated with GI adoption and documents analytical procedures used to quantify the benefits linked to GI implementation. The benefits as identified and reported in this study are qualitative rather than quantitative. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Case Studies of Green Infrastructure Adoption)
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