Journal article

Concepts and evolution of urban hydrology

Tim D Fletcher, Matthew J Burns, Kathryn L Russell, Perrine Hamel, Sophie Duchesne, Frederic Cherqui, Allison H Roy

Nature Reviews Earth and Environment | Springer Nature | Published : 2024

Abstract

Urbanization and climate change are exacerbating the flood risk and ecosystem degradation in urban catchments, with traditional stormwater management systems often overwhelmed. In this Review, we discuss changes in urban hydrology and approaches to stormwater management. Roughly 90% of rainfall on impervious surfaces and drainage infrastructure becomes run-off, enhancing rainfall export away from cities and leading to local water scarcity and downstream flooding and pollution. Projected increases in urban populations (68% in cities by 2050) and rainfall intensity (~12% in the 10-year and 50-year recurrence interval intensity, under 1.5 °C warming) will exacerbate these issues. Transforming s..

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council Industry Laureate Fellowship programme


Awarded by ARC Linkage Project


Awarded by European Union


Awarded by H2O'Lyon


Awarded by National Research Foundation of Singapore, Prime Minister's Office


Funding Acknowledgements

T.D.F., M.J.B. and K.L.R. thank the Australian Research Council Industry Laureate Fellowship programme (IL230100020), ARC Linkage Project LP200200107 and Melbourne Waterway Research Practice Partnership for support. H. Mathias (Zurich) provided Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) data used in Fig. 3. F.C. thanks the European Union's Horizon 2020 Co-UDlabs Project (GA 101008626), OTHU (www.othu.org) and H2O'Lyon (ANR-17-EURE-0018). P.H. thanks the National Research Foundation of Singapore, Prime Minister's Office (NRF-NRFF12-2020-0009) for financial support. The authors thank D. Butler for comments which improved the manuscript.