Aligning ancient and modern approaches to sustainable urban water management in China
July 13, 2018
Flood prevention and risk management is high on the state agenda in China, owing in part to disastrous large-scale flooding in Beijing in 2012. Rather than solely relying on increasingly larger piped (grey) infrastructure, there has been investment in more natural approaches to manage stormwater, utilising blue and green infrastructure and sustainable drainage systems (SuDS). …
Urban Fluvial Geomorphology
January 23, 2018
After completing her PhD in fluvial geomorphology at Cranfield University together with Arup and Leeds City Council on the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme, Kim joined the EPSRC Urban Flood Resilience research consortium in October 2017. In this blog post, she reflects on how insights from fluvial geomorphology can be applied to the urban environment in …
The Need for Multi-functional Design
January 16, 2018
In this blog, Dick Fenner examines how the multi-functional design of sustainable drainage systems can enhance the multiple benefits they can produce across an urban landscape. Introduction Urban drainage systems that incorporate elements of green infrastructure (SuDS/GI) are central features in Blue-Green and Sponge Cities. Such approaches provide effective control of stormwater management whilst generating …
Translating Blue-Green theory into practice: winning hearts and minds
June 27, 2016
Guest post by Laura McGinty, Newcastle University. If you’ve stumbled across this blog then the chances are that you know at least a little bit about Blue-Green Infrastructure, and the role of ecosystem services in climate change adaptation and mitigation. You’re probably not the average “Joe Public”, but rather someone with some kind of specialist …
Rotterdam’s visionary flood and water management infrastructure
April 11, 2016
In early April 2016 I visited Rotterdam with an undergraduate student interested in researching the commonalities and disparities between sustainable water management in the Netherlands and the UK, and how (and why) their future visions for resilient cities differ. We had the opportunity to explore the city, see some of the innovate infrastructure that Rotterdam …
Outputs from the Blue-Green Cities Research Project (Feb 2013-2016)
March 10, 2016
The Blue-Green Cities (EPSRC EP/K013661) research team have spent the last three years creating methodologies and frameworks, conducting field and lab work, testing novel techniques, and developing models to evaluate the multiple flood risk benefits of Blue-Green Cities. A Blue-Green City aims to recreate a naturally-oriented water cycle while contributing to the amenity of the …
Sustainable drainage systems: helping people live with water
October 19, 2015
Sustainable urban drainage systems, or SuDS, are increasingly acknowledged as an effective means of surface water management that ‘makes space for water‘ and utilises surface water as a resource rather than a nuisance. The increasing number of SuDS installations has led to potential shifts in the perception and attitudes towards these assets. This study, recently …
Planning for Sustainable Flood Risk Management: A Northern Ireland Workshop
September 17, 2015
On 2nd September a workshop hosted by the Northern Ireland Rivers Agency, a division of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), and supported by the Blue-Green Cities Research Project and River Restoration Centre (RRC), discussed how Northern Ireland could change their flood risk management planning and practices and increase the role of natural …
System interactions of stormwater management using SuDS and GI
September 9, 2015
Stormwater management solutions, such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) and Green Infrastructure (GI), interact widely with the urban landscape and a series of interdependencies between different urban infrastructure (e.g. water management, energy, telecommunications and information technology) influence the success of strategies to manage urban flood risk and stormwater and potential modification of the urban …
Improving urban flood resilience by sustainable drainage retrofit
July 23, 2015
Dr Jessica Lamond (Faculty of Environment and Technology, University of the West of England) and colleagues have recently published a new paper in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) – Urban Design and Planning. This links with Dr Lamond’s research as part of the Blue-Green Cities WP2c (Behavioral Responses of Individuals and Institutions). They investigated whether retrofitting …
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