Effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions for Mitigating the Impact of Pluvial Flooding in Urban Areas at the Regional Scale

Pluvial flooding causes significant damage in urban areas worldwide. The most common approaches to mitigating these impacts at regional scales include structural measures such as dams, levees and floodways. More recently, the use of nature-based solutions (NBS) is receiving increasing attention, as such approaches are more adaptive than structural measures and have a number of potential co-benefits (e.g., improvements in water quality and amenity). As NBSs are generally applied at house or block scales in urban areas, their potential for reducing the impacts of urban flooding at the regional scale are unknown. We introduce an approach that enables the potential of using portfolios of NBSs to reduce the impact of urban flooding to be assessed at the regional scale. This approach enables the most suitable locations for such portfolios of NBSs to be identified, as well as their effectiveness to be modeled at spatial resolutions that are commonly used for regional planning studies. The approach is applied to a case study area to the north of Adelaide, South Australia, with results obtained suggesting that there is significant potential for using strategically placed portfolios of NBSs to reduce the impact of pluvial flooding in urban areas at the regional scale.

Automated summary

Pluvial flooding causes significant damage in urban areas worldwide. Traditional structural measures have been commonly used to mitigate flooding impacts, but nature-based solutions (NBS) are gaining attention due to their adaptive nature and potential co-benefits. However, the potential of using portfolios of NBSs to reduce the impact of urban flooding at the regional scale is currently unknown.