Quantifying the response of potential flooding risk to urban growth in Beijing

Yibing Wang; Xianhong Xie; Shunlin Liang; Bowen Zhu; Yi Yao; Shanshan Meng; Chuiyu Lu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135868

Quantifying the response of potential flooding risk to urban growth in Beijing

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Feb 25:705:135868. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135868. Epub 2019 Dec 2.

Authors

Yibing Wang¹, Xianhong Xie², Shunlin Liang³, Bowen Zhu⁴, Yi Yao⁴, Shanshan Meng⁴, Chuiyu Lu⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: ybwang@mail.bnu.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: xianhong@bnu.edu.cn.
³ Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100875, China; Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
⁵ China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, Beijing 100038, China.

PMID: 31818567
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135868

Abstract

Global urban growth leads to a great increase in the impervious surface area (ISA) such as roads, plazas, airports, and parking lots, and consequently reshapes hydrological regimes in urban basins. Beijing, the capital of China, has experienced rapid urban growth since the 1980s. However, the spatial-temporal variability of the ISA and its impact on flooding risk are unclear. This study monitored urban growth (i.e., the evolution of the ISA) in Beijing for the period of 1980-2015 based on Landsat data, and identified the response of surface runoff yield using a land-surface hydrological model. The modeling at a relatively high spatial resolution (~6 km) was driven with retrieved long-term ISA dynamics, Global LAnd Surface Satellite (GLASS) product, and climate forcings. The results show that the impervious surface fraction (ISF) in Beijing increased from 8.73% (1448.16 km²) in 1980 to 22.22% (3685.92 km²) in 2015. With a demarcation at around the year 2000, the ISA growth presents a new pattern with a northeast-southwest direction from the Core Functional Zone (Core-Zone). Due to the ISA expansion, the simulated runoff coefficient in 2010 is approximately doubled compared to that of 1980. We identified an ISF threshold of approximately 6%, beyond which every 1% increase in the ISF may increase the surface runoff by approximately 5.51 mm/year, and thereby poses a high potential flooding risk even under a moderate rainfall event. In four typical historical storms, the sensitivity coefficients of surface runoff to precipitation and ISF were 0.97 and 0.63, respectively, indicating impervious surfaces dramatically enhanced the potential flooding risk. Our findings have implications for urban planning and the construction of sponge city in Beijing.

Keywords: Beijing; Impervious surface; Land surface hydrological modeling; Landsat data; Potential flooding risk; Surface runoff.