A Review of Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty Applications Using Green Infrastructure for Flood Management

Decision making under deep uncertainty (DMDU) approaches are well-suited for making decisions about infrastructure to manage flooding exacerbated by climate change. One important system for climate resilience and flood management is green infrastructure, which refers to a network of natural and semi-engineered areas that provides ecosystem functions. Green infrastructure is often characterized as a low-regret strategy with multiple co-benefits under uncertainty. These attributes enable green infrastructure to be an important adaptation strategy under DMDU frameworks for flood management. However, DMDU analyses that include green infrastructure are still relatively limited, perhaps due to computational or modeling complexity and other barriers. This paper identifies and reviews publications in the flood management literature that use DMDU frameworks and refer to green infrastructure adaptation strategies, in order to identify trends and inform future research. The reviewed publications are categorized according to a variety of performance metrics, climate change scenarios, DMDU metrics, and hydrologic modeling techniques, and represent several adaptation strategies applied to case studies on five continents using a range of data sources and assumptions. This paper highlights a number of solutions that can be employed to facilitate additional research at the intersection of these fields. Primary among these is the transparent documentation and use of open source models, methods, and data. Future research should also focus on communication among different stakeholders, particularly in ensuring definitions, assumptions, and data requirements are clear. These partnerships can facilitate effective application of robust strategies such as green infrastructure for urban adaptation to the effects of climate change.

Automated summary

Decision making under deep uncertainty is crucial for managing flooding exacerbated by climate change. Green infrastructure, as an important adaptation strategy, has multiple co-benefits and is characterized as low-regret under uncertainty. However, there is limited research on the integration of green infrastructure in decision making under deep uncertainty. This paper reviews publications that use decision making under deep uncertainty frameworks and focus on green infrastructure adaptation strategies in flood management, identifying trends and proposing solutions for future research.