Sustainable architecture and social engagement for flooding and drought resilience

Climate change is disrupting our planet’s natural cycles and the steep socio-economic growth together with rapid urbanisation are increasing the uncertainty of its effects. During the last decades, frequency and impact of flash floods and droughts in Mediterranean and Middle-East regions has substantially increased and will continue to rise due to these new variations. Therefore, buildings and local architecture in these areas must be adapted to avoid future damages. However, disaster prevention will not be truly effective until the ‘human factor’ is considered, based on actual evidence instead of theoretical assumptions. Better research into how communities are affected by disasters and how they re-act with new architectural solutions is urgently needed. In 2007, one Spanish town was tragically affected by the Girona River flash-floods and its population and buildings were severely disrupted. This case study was chosen as the main testing ground within this research, whose main aims were: a) to identify environmental retrofit strategies to increase resilience and adaptation to flooding, while improving comfort and living conditions; and, b) to present the proposed strategies to the affected local population. The project revealed insights in the increased level of acceptance and understanding of innovative solutions by local inhabitants when greater communication and participation is achieved

An urban planning sustainability framework: systems approach to blue green urban design

The climate emergency and population growth are challenging water security and sustainable urban design in cities worldwide. Sustainable urban development is crucial to minimise pressures on the natural environment and on existing urban infrastructure systems, including water, energy, and land. These pressures are particularly evident in London, which is considered highly vulnerable to water shortages and floods and where there has been a historical shortage of housing. However, the impacts of urban growth on environmental management and protection are complex and difficult to evaluate. In addition, there is a disconnection between the policy and decision-making processes as to what comprises a sustainable urban development project. We present a systems-based Urban Planning Sustainability Framework (UPSUF) that integrates sustainability evaluation, design solutions and planning system process. One of the features of this master planning framework is the spatial representation of the urban development in a Geographical Information System to create an operational link between design solutions and evaluation metrics. UPSUF moves from an initial baseline scenario to a sustainable urban development design, incorporating the requirements of governance and regulatory bodies, as well as those of the end-users. Ultimately, UPSUF has the potential to facilitate partnership between the public and the private sectors

Water neutrality framework for systemic design of new urban developments

The climate emergency and population growth threaten urban water security in cities worldwide. Growth, urbanisation, and changes to way of life have increased housing demand, requiring cities such as London to increase their housing stock by more than 15% over the next 10 years. These new urban developments will increase water demand, urban flood risk, and river water pollution levels; therefore, an integrated systems-based approach to development and water management is needed. Water Neutrality (WN) has emerged as a concept to frame the concerns about escalating water stresses in cities. We frame WN as a planning process for new urban developments that aims to minimise impacts on urban water security and offset any remaining stresses by retrofitting existing housing stock. In this work, we present a novel systemic design framework for future urban planning called CityPlan-Water, which guides how WN might be achieved to tackle current and future water pressures at a city scale. CityPlan-Water integrates spatial data with an integrated urban water management model, enabling urban design at a systems level and systematic assessment of future scenarios. We define a Water Neutrality Index that captures how successful a given urban planning scenario is in achieving WN and how multiple interventions could be combined at a city scale to improve WN. Results from CityPlan-Water suggest that it will be necessary to retrofit almost the same number of existing homes with WN design options to completely offset the impact imposed by proposed new developments. Combining options such as water efficient appliances, water reuse systems, and social awareness campaigns can offset the impact of new development on water demand by 70%, while to neutralise potential flood risk and water pollution at a city scale, interventions such as rainwater harvesting and Blue Green Infrastructure need to be added both in new urban developments and 432,000 existing London households. We see CityPlan-Water as a tool that can support the transition of urban planning towards using data-driven analysis to effectively design water neutral housing and drive sustainable development

Evaluating natural capital performance of urban development through system dynamics: A case study from London.

Natural capital plays a central role in urban functioning, reducing flooding, mitigating urban heat island effects, reducing air pollution, and improving urban biodiversity through provision of habitat space. There is also evidence on the role played by blue and green space in improving physical and mental health, reducing the burden on the health care service. Yet from an urban planning and development view, natural capital may be considered a nice to have, but not essential element of urban design; taking up valuable space which could otherwise be used for traditional built environment uses. While urban natural capital is largely recognised as a positive element, its benefits are difficult to measure both in space and time, making its inclusion in urban (re)development difficult to justify. Here, using a London case study and information provided by key stakeholders, we present a system dynamics (SD) modelling framework to assess the natural capital performance of development and aid design evaluation. A headline indicator: Natural Space Performance, is used to evaluate the capacity of natural space to provide ecosystem services, providing a semi-quantitative measure of system wide impacts of change within a combined natural, built and social system. We demonstrate the capacity of the model to explore how combined or individual changes in development design can affect natural capital and the provision of ecosystem services, for example, biodiversity or flood risk. By evaluating natural capital and ecosystem services over time, greater justification for their inclusion in planning and development can be derived, providing support for increased blue and green space within cities, improving urban sustainability and enhancing quality of life. Furthermore, the application of a SD approach captures key interactions between variables over time, showing system evolution while highlighting intervention opportunities