Green Stormwater Infrastructure For Sustainable Urban And Rural Development

“Green Stormwater Infrastructure for Sustainable Urban and Rural Development” offers some of the latest international scientific and practitioner findings around the adaptation of urban, rural and transportation infrastructures to climate change by sustainable water management. This book addresses the main gaps in the up-to-date literature and provides the reader with a holistic view, ranging from a strategic and multiscale planning, implementation and decision-making angle down to the engineering details for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of green stormwater techniques such as sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and stormwater control measures (SCMs). This book is particularly recommended for a wide audience of readers, such as academics/researchers and students in the fields of architecture and landscaping, engineering, environmental and natural sciences, social and physical geography and urban and territorial planning. This book is also a resource for practitioners and professionals developing their work in architecture studios, engineering companies, local and regional authorities, water and environmental industries, infrastructure maintenance, regulators, planners, developers and legislators.

This book addresses the nuts and bolts of planning and preserving natural assets at a variety of scales--from dense urban environments to scenic rural landscapes. A practical guide to creating effective and well-crafted plans and then implementing them, the book presents a six-step process developed and field-tested by the Green Infrastructure Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Well-organized chapters explain how each step, from setting goals to implementing opportunities, can be applied to a variety of scenarios, customizable to the reader's target geographical location.

A new model for water management is emerging worldwide in response to water shortages, polluted waterways, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Cities and towns are questioning the ecological and financial sustainability of big-pipe water, stormwater, and sewer systems and are searching for “lighter footprint” more sustainable solutions. Pilot projects are being built that use, treat, store, and reuse water locally and that build distributed designs into restorative hydrology. This book has been developed from the conference on Sustainable Water Infrastructure for Villages and Cities of the Future (SWIF2009) held in November 2009 in Beijing (China) that brought together an international gathering of experts in urban water and drainage infrastructure, landscape architecture, economics, environmental law, citizen participation, utility management, green building, and science and technology development. Water Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities China and the World reveals how imaginative concepts are being developed and implemented to ensure that cities, towns, and villages and their water resources can become ecologically sustainable and provide clean water. With both urban and rural waters as a focal point, the links between water quality and hydrology, landscape, and the broader concepts of green cities/villages and smart development are explored. The book focuses on decentralized concepts of potable water, stormwater, and wastewater management that would provide clean water. It results in water management systems that would be resilient to extreme events such as excessive flows due to extreme meteorological events, severe droughts, and deteriorated water and urban ecosystem quality. A particular emphasis is placed on learning lessons from the many innovative projects being designed in China and other initiatives around the world. The principal audience for the book is university faculty and students, scientists in research institutes, water professionals, governmental organizations, NGOs, urban landscape architects and planners. Visit the IWA WaterWiki to read and share material related to this title: http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/WaterInfrastructureforSustainableCommunities Edited by Professor Xiaodi Hao, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, P. R. of China, Professor Vladimir Novotny, Northeastern University, Boston, USA and Dr Valerie Nelson, Coalition for Alternative Wastewater Treatment, MA, USA

Green Stormwater Infrastructure Fundamentals and Design Discover novel stormwater control measures to make for a greener tomorrow! The protection of our aquatic resources is growing in importance as the effects of climate change and continued urbanization are felt throughout the world. While most rain that falls onto vegetated spaces infiltrates the soil, rain that falls onto impervious surfaces will not, increasing downstream flooding and erosion and causing impaired water quality. Impervious surfaces such as road infrastructure, rooftops, and parking areas all increase runoff and mobilize many pollutants that have deposited on these surfaces that are then carried into our waterways. Proper management of this stormwater through green infrastructure is essential to address these challenges and reduce the environmental and ecological impacts brought about by this runoff. This book brings into focus resilient stormwater control measures (SCMs) for the reduction of stormwater flows and associated pollutants that can detrimentally impact our local environmental and ecological systems. These interventions are green infrastructure based, utilizing natural hydrologic and environmental features using soil and vegetation to manage stormwater. These technologies include water harvesting, bioretention and bioinfiltration, vegetated swales and filter strips, permeable pavements, sand filters, green roofs, and stormwater wetlands, among others. The basic science and engineering of these technologies is discussed, including performance information and best maintenance practices. Green Stormwater Infrastructure readers will also find: Research-informed resilient SCM design fundamentals Diagrams developed by the authors to enhance understanding Case studies to illustrate the points elucidated in the book End-of-chapter problems with a separate solutions manual Green Stormwater Infrastructure is an ideal resource for environmental, civil, and biological engineers and environmental scientists in the consulting field. Landscape architects, managers and engineers of watershed districts, and members of federal, state, and local governmental agencies—especially those in the departments of environmental protection and transportation—will find many uses for this guidebook. It will also be of interest to professors, upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in environmental, civil, and biological engineering programs.

The rapid urbanization that began with industrialization has begun to cause many problems. New approaches are emerging today to minimize these problems and make urban areas more livable. These problems include insufficient social facilities in urban areas for increasing populations due to migration and unbalanced use of green areas, water, and energy resources due to urbanization. Careless consumption and the pollution of natural resources will cause people many more problems in the future than they do today in urban development. Many professional disciplines have noticed this unbalanced development in urban areas. Urban areas have larger populations than rural areas today. Urban areas are developed neglectfully. Sustainability is needed as a criterion for urban areas to develop in a more livable and healthy fashion. Sustainable urban development approaches are seen in many fields, ranging from land use to the use of natural resources in urban areas.

This book offers an overview of recent scientific and professional literature on urban greening and urban ecology, focusing on diverse disciplines such as landscape architecture, geography, urban ecology, urban climatology, biodiversity conservation, urban governance, architecture and urban hydrology. It includes contributions in which academics, public policy experts and practitioners share their considerable knowledge on the multi-faceted aspects of greening cities. The greening of cities has witnessed a global resurgence over the past two decades and has made a significant contribution to urban liveability and sustainability, as well as increasing resilience. As urban greening efforts continue to expand, it is useful to promote recent advances in our understanding of various aspects of planning, design and management of urban greenery, but at the same time, it is also important to realize that there are important gaps in our knowledge and that further research is needed. The book is organized in three main parts: concepts, functions and forms of urban greening. The first part examines the historical roots of greening cities and how the burgeoning field of urban ecology can contribute useful principles and strategies to guide the planning, design and management of urban greening. The second part shifts the focus to the diverse range of services – the functions – provided by urban greening, such as those related to urban climate, urban biodiversity, human health, and community building. The final part explores conventional, often neglected, but important forms of urban greenery such as urban woodlands and urban farms, as well as relatively recent forms of urban greenery like those integrated with buildings and waterways. It offers a ready reference resource for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to grasp the critical issues and trigger further studies and applications in the quest for high-performance green cities.

This report focuses on the urban water management challenges facing cities across OECD countries, and explores both national and local policy responses with respect to water-risk exposure, the state of urban infrastructures and dynamics, and institutional and governance architectures. The analyses focus on four mutually dependent dimensions – finance, innovation, urban-rural co-operation and governance – and proposes a solutions-oriented typology based on urban characteristics. The report underlines that sustainable urban water management will depend on collaboration across different tiers of government working together with local initiatives and stakeholders.