Thiagarajan Manasvini, Newman Galen, Van Zandt Shannon
Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX;
Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Sustainability. 2018 Oct;10(10). doi: 10.3390/su10103665. Epub 2018 Oct 13.
Climate change and its related factors are increasing the frequency of hurricanes, coastal storms, and urban flooding. Recovery from disasters can be slow, with jurisdictions failing to build back better, wasting time and money without improving resilience to the next disaster. To help attenuate floods and mitigate their impacts, Low Impact Development (LID) and the incorporation of green infrastructure (GI) is gaining in popularity. LID installs more natural methods of absorbing, redirecting, retaining, and filtering water, through GI installations such as rain gardens, detention ponds, and the reduction of impervious surfaces. LID is, however, primarily implemented and evaluated only on a local scale; few studies have assessed the broader impacts of GI on a larger scale. In fact, most performance calculators that evaluate the effects of GI are only useful at the site scale. Further, most advocates of GI propose its use in new developments, without much attention to retrofitting existing, suburban development. This article seeks to determine what the potential effects of retrofitting an existing, suburban neighborhood with GI for flood protection at a larger scale could be, using Sugar Land, Texas, USA as a case site. First, low-impact facilities are proposed and schematically designed at a site scale for a typical single-family lot. The volume of rainfall that can be retained on site, due to each incorporated feature, is then derived using the Green Values National Storm Water Management Calculator. Using this data, the total volume of rainfall that could be retained if all residential sites in Sugar Land incorporate similar facilities is then projected. The result show that Sugar Land has the capacity to capture 56 billion liters of stormwater water annually if all residential properties use LID. Additional benefits of the use of GI include reduced heat (37%), improved aesthetics and property values (20%), increased recreational opportunities (18%), improved water quality (12%), improved air quality (5%), increased green collar jobs (4%), reduced damage from harmful gas emissions (3%), and increased energy savings (1%), thereby surpassing conventional storm water management techniques [1].
气候变化及其相关因素正在增加飓风、沿海风暴和城市内涝的发生频率。灾害恢复可能很缓慢，一些辖区未能更好地重建，浪费了时间和金钱，却没有提高对下一次灾害的抵御能力。为了帮助减轻洪水灾害并降低其影响，低影响开发（LID）以及绿色基础设施（GI）的纳入越来越受到欢迎。LID通过诸如雨水花园、滞洪池等绿色基础设施的设置以及减少不透水表面，采用了更多吸收、 redirecting、保留和过滤水的自然方法。然而，LID主要仅在地方层面实施和评估；很少有研究在更大规模上评估绿色基础设施的更广泛影响。事实上，大多数评估绿色基础设施效果的性能计算器仅在场地尺度上有用。此外，大多数绿色基础设施的倡导者提议在新开发项目中使用它，而对改造现有的郊区开发项目关注不多。本文旨在以美国得克萨斯州的舒格兰为例，确定在更大规模上用绿色基础设施改造现有郊区社区以保护防洪的潜在效果可能是什么。首先，针对典型的单户地块，在场地尺度上提出并示意性设计了低影响设施。然后，使用绿色价值国家雨水管理计算器得出由于每个纳入的特征可在现场保留的降雨量。利用这些数据，预测了如果舒格兰所有住宅场地都采用类似设施可保留的总降雨量。结果表明，如果所有住宅物业都使用LID，舒格兰每年有能力收集560亿升雨水。使用绿色基础设施的其他好处包括减少热量（37%）、改善美观和房产价值（20%）、增加娱乐机会（18%）、改善水质（12%）、改善空气质量（5%）、增加绿领工作岗位（4%）、减少有害气体排放造成的损害（3%）以及增加能源节约（1%），从而超过了传统的雨水管理技术[1]。
