Comparison of blue-green solutions for urban flood mitigation: A multi-city large-scale analysis

PLoS One. 2021 Jan 29;16(1):e0246429. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246429. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Flooding risk in cities has been recently exacerbated by increased urbanization and climate change, often with catastrophic consequences in terms of casualties and economic losses. Rainwater harvesting systems and green roofs are recognized as being among the most effective blue-green mitigation measures. However, performances of these systems have currently been investigated only at laboratory or very-small local scales. In this work, we assess the potential benefit of the extensive installation of these solutions on all the rooftops of 9 cities, with different climatological and geographical characteristics. Both surface discharge reduction and delay between rainfall and runoff peak generation have been investigated. Green roofs ensure a larger average lag time between rainfall and runoff peaks than rainwater harvesting systems, without significant differences between intensive and extensive structures. On the other hand, the cost-efficiency analysis, considering the entire urban area, shows a higher retention capacity with a lower financial investment for rainwater harvesting rather than for green roofs in most cases. For extreme rainfall events, large-scale installation of rainwater harvesting systems coupled with intensive green roofs over the entire city have shown to be the most efficient solution, with a total discharge reduction that can vary from 5% to 15%, depending on the city characteristics and local climate.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cities
  • Conservation of Natural Resources*
  • Floods / prevention & control*
  • Humans
  • Urban Renewal*
  • Water Movements*

Grants and funding

RD was supported by the Sardinian Region with law 7/2007, funding call 2017, project: “HYDROSARD: Un approccio multidisciplinare integrato e multiscala per la valutazione globale delle risorse idriche nella Regione Sardegna, anche in condizioni di cambiamento climatico”, CUP: F76C18000920002. FV was partially supported by the Fondazione di Sardegna, funding call 2017, project: Impacts of climate change on water resources and floods, CUP: F71I17000270002.