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Surface Water Management: Recent Advances and Challenges

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 17423

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Ryton Gardens, Wolston Lane, Coventry CV8 3LG, UK
Interests: sustainable drainage systems (SuDS); nature-based solutions; design and installation of SuDS in informal settlements, favelas, and refugee camps; role of green infrastructure; ecosystem service provision; urban lake and river sediments; urban physical processes: urban hydrology; risk to children’s health of contaminants in playground material; efficiency of porous paving in degrading oil and dealing with metal pollutants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 2TU, United Kingdom
Interests: natural flood risk management; catchment management; community resilience and engagement; flood modelling and monitoring

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Guest Editor
School of Energy, Construction and Environment, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
Interests: flood; reduce flood risk
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Surface water management has undergone a paradigm shift in recent history, transitioning from extensive methods of land drainage to a more integrated form of ‘living with water’ in our built and agricultural environments. These integrated methods of surface water management include sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and wider nature-based solutions (NbS) such as natural flood management (NFM). Such techniques have been applied in both rural and urban locations, across multiple hydrological scales with the aim of providing a multitude of ecosystem services, from reducing flood risk to improving water quality and increasing biodiversity and public amenity. Much effort and innovations are ongoing to overcome challenges in how we design, assess and value such methods of surface water management in the challenging context of population growth, urban expansion, habitat loss and degradation, agricultural intensification and climate change.

I hope this Special Issue gives you the opportunity to highlight your excellent research and/or your valuable industry contribution to the field of surface water management. This can include your research into novel surface water management applications, as well as continued challenges and evidence gaps that need to be addressed for wider adoption.

We invite you to join the discussion that we are currently hosting by publishing either a research article or review paper. We encourage you to check out the Special Issue website at the following link for our greeting message: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/special_issues/surface_water_management

The submission deadline is 31 November 2021, but you can send your manuscript now or up until the deadline. Submitted papers should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to us in advance.

Prof. Susanne Charlesworth
Dr. Tom Lavers
Dr. Craig Lashford
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Surface water management
  • Nature-based solutions
  • Natural flood management
  • Sustainable drainage systems
  • Catchment management
  • Flood risk management
  • Ecosystem services
  • Working with natural processes

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 2262 KiB  
Article
The Performance of Natural Flood Management at the Large Catchment-Scale: A Case Study in the Warwickshire Stour Valley
by Tom Lavers, Susanne M. Charlesworth, Craig Lashford, Frank Warwick and Jana Fried
Water 2022, 14(23), 3836; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14233836 - 25 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3326
Abstract
The limited understanding of Natural Flood Management (NFM) performance, especially at large hydrological scales, is considered a critical barrier for the further funding and implementation of these nature-based solutions to the increasing international problem of flooding. The publications of the Intergovernmental Panel on [...] Read more.
The limited understanding of Natural Flood Management (NFM) performance, especially at large hydrological scales, is considered a critical barrier for the further funding and implementation of these nature-based solutions to the increasing international problem of flooding. The publications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report and Environment Agency’s National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy (NFCERMS) for England have shown that extreme weather, including increased likelihood of high magnitude flood events, will occur and will require more novel management methods. This study focused on the ability of co-designed NFM measures to ameliorate downstream fluvial flooding by attenuating catchment response through a highly spatially distributed network of attenuating and roughening measures. Performance was characterised by the ability of NFM to attenuate flood peaks at different spatial scales across a large (187 km2) dendritic catchment, including the lowering of flood peaks and delaying the time-to-peak. Using a coupled modelling methodology and applying it to the upper Stour Valley, Warwickshire-Avon, UK, a rural response to the application of a set of NFM interventions was developed using the hydrodynamic model Flood Modeller Pro and XPSWMM ©. The method demonstrated a means of incorporating local knowledge in a realistic set of NFM schemes, tested to multiple flood risk scenarios (including climate change). Under frequent, smaller design storm events (e.g., Index Flood (QMED) and 3.3% AEP), flood peaks were lowered across all hydrological scales tested (5.8 km2 to 187 km2). As the design flood event severity increases, impact from upstream NFM attenuation on downstream peak response diminished significantly, especially at the largest hydrological scales. However, even at the largest hydrological scale, delays in time-to-peak were noted, increasing the ability of downstream communities to respond and enact flood preparation activities, thus increasing resilience to potential flooding events. While the benefits were limited to large flood events, the modelling indicated that NFM has the potential to reduce downstream flood risk. However, greater integration of observed data to improve model confidence and reduce uncertainty in modelled events is needed, especially the uncertainty associated with using single peaked design storm events from the Flood Estimation Handbook (FEH). This paper proposes a future Before–After Control–Impact (BACI) monitoring programme that could be integrated with models and applied across non-tidally influenced catchments seeking to empirically test the hydrological performance of in-situ NFM. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface Water Management: Recent Advances and Challenges)
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15 pages, 3967 KiB  
Article
Challenges of Spring Protection and Groundwater Development in Urban Subway Construction: A Case Study in the Jinan Karst Area, China
by Wenyang Wang, Yonghui Fan, Kai Li, Xintong Wang and Jintao Kang
Water 2022, 14(9), 1521; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091521 - 9 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2740
Abstract
In order to improve land-use efficiency and solve traffic congestion, in recent years, many cities in China have focused on developing urban underground space resources and urban rail transit projects. However, there are various hidden risks for the sustainable development of the ecological [...] Read more.
In order to improve land-use efficiency and solve traffic congestion, in recent years, many cities in China have focused on developing urban underground space resources and urban rail transit projects. However, there are various hidden risks for the sustainable development of the ecological environment and water resources. In this paper, a comprehensive investigation and analysis of spring water resources are carried out using the example of the karst area of Jinan, which is known as ‘spring city’. The engineering geological and hydrogeological conditions in Jinan are introduced in detail, and the geological causes of springs are analyzed. In addition, the causes of spring flow attenuation are revealed based on the investigation of the flow dynamics of spring water. Based on the current situation of traffic congestion in Jinan, the necessity and development statuses of rail transit construction are analyzed. Then, according to the different stratigraphic structure, limestone roof depth and karst water head depth, the Jinan spring area is divided into three research regions including the shallow limestone area, concentrated spring water area and deep limestone area. The spring protection problems faced by each region during the construction of urban railways are systematically described. In addition, the countermeasures and suggestions for spring protection are presented. This study aims to reduce the impact of urban rail transit construction on Jinan spring water so as to protect the Jinan spring. It also provides the water resources protection experience for urban rail transit construction in similar karst areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface Water Management: Recent Advances and Challenges)
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15 pages, 3619 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Tree Planting on Infiltration Dependent on Tree Proximity and Maturity at a Clay Site in Warwickshire, England
by Nathaniel Revell, Craig Lashford, Matteo Rubinato and Matthew Blackett
Water 2022, 14(6), 892; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14060892 - 12 Mar 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4444
Abstract
Urbanisation and the replacement of previously vegetated areas with impermeable surfaces reduces the lag times of overland flow and increases peak flows to receiving watercourses; the magnitude of this will increase as a result of climate change. Tree planting is gaining momentum as [...] Read more.
Urbanisation and the replacement of previously vegetated areas with impermeable surfaces reduces the lag times of overland flow and increases peak flows to receiving watercourses; the magnitude of this will increase as a result of climate change. Tree planting is gaining momentum as a potential method of natural flood management (NFM) due to its ability to break up soil and increase infiltration and water storage. In this study, a 2.2 km2 clay-textured area in Warwickshire, England, planted with trees every year from 2006 to 2012 was sampled to investigate how infiltration varies dependent on season and tree proximity and maturity. Infiltration data was collected from 10 and 200 cm away from selected sample trees from November 2019 to August 2021 using a Mini Disk infiltrometer (MDI). The results show that mean infiltration is higher at the 10 cm proximity compared with the 200 cm proximity by 75.87% in winter and 25.19% in summer. Further to this, mean 10 cm infiltration is 192% higher in summer compared with winter, and mean 200 cm infiltration is 310% higher in summer compared with winter. There is little evidence to suggest a relationship between infiltration and tree maturity at the study site. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface Water Management: Recent Advances and Challenges)
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Review

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15 pages, 789 KiB  
Review
Sustainable Catchment-Wide Flood Management: A Review of the Terminology and Application of Sustainable Catchment Flood Management Techniques in the UK
by Craig Lashford, Tom Lavers, Sim Reaney, Susanne Charlesworth, Lydia Burgess-Gamble and Jonathan Dale
Water 2022, 14(8), 1204; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14081204 - 8 Apr 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5000
Abstract
Climate change has seen increased pressures put on the existing ageing flood mitigation infrastructure. As a result, over recent decades there has been a shift from traditional hard-engineered approaches to flooding to more sustainable methods that utilise nature-based processes in order to slow [...] Read more.
Climate change has seen increased pressures put on the existing ageing flood mitigation infrastructure. As a result, over recent decades there has been a shift from traditional hard-engineered approaches to flooding to more sustainable methods that utilise nature-based processes in order to slow flow, store water and increase infiltration. Doing so has resulted in a range of different nomenclature for such techniques, particularly in the rural environment. This paper takes a critical review of such terms to draw parallels in the different approaches, with the aim of developing a more unified, consistent approach to flood management. Furthermore, links have been drawn with the urban environment, where Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) are used as a sustainable approach to urban flooding. The findings from this review have identified a series of issues that result from the current UK approach of differentiating between urban and rural flood risk, with funding often given for Natural Flood Management (NFM) projects separately to SuDS, with little integrated thinking from source to sea. Hence, the review suggests (1) a greater consideration of scale, focusing on the catchment as a whole, is required to ensure a more holistic approach to flood management, under the phrase “sustainable catchment-wide flood management”, to ensure that the focus shifts from NFM (rural) and SuDS (urban), to a more integrated catchment-wide approach; (2) the development of robust policy and regulatory framework, to ensure that such an approach is more widely adopted; (3) a greater consideration of the long-term costs is also required, with future research needed on the long-term maintenance costs of different methods; (4) the development of modelling approaches that can simulate flow at a range of spatial and temporal scales, to support stakeholders, such as local authorities, flood risk engineers and government agencies when considering flow not only in rural areas, but also to understand the impact beyond the immediate area around the scheme. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface Water Management: Recent Advances and Challenges)
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