Management of Urban Stormwater at Block-Level (MUST-B): A New Approach for Potential Analysis of Decentralized Stormwater Management Systems

Cities worldwide are facing problems to mitigate the impact of urban stormwater runoff caused by the increasing occurrence of heavy rainfall events and urban re-densification. This study presents a new approach for estimating the potential of the Management of Urban STormwater at Block-level (MUST-B) by decentralized blue-green infrastructures here called low-impact developments (LIDs) for already existing urban environments. The MUST-B method was applied to a study area in the northern part of the City of Leipzig, Germany. The Study areas was divided into blocks smallest functional units and considering two different soil permeability and three different rainfall events, seven scenarios have been developed: current situation, surface infiltration, swale infiltration, trench infiltration, trough-trench infiltration, and three different combinations of extensive roof greening, trough-trench infiltration, and shaft infiltration. The LIDs have been simulated and their maximum retention/infiltration potential and the required area have been estimated together with a cost calculation. The results showed that even stormwater of a 100 year rainfall event can be fully retained and infiltrated within the blocks on a soil with low permeability (kf = 10−6 m/s). The cost and the required area for the LIDs differed depending on the scenario and responded to the soil permeability and rainfall events. It is shown that the MUST-B method allows a simple down- and up-scaling process for different urban settings and facilitates decision making for implementing decentralized blue-green-infrastructure that retain, store, and infiltrate stormwater at block level.

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Hydrological Response of a Permeable Pavement Laboratory Rig for Stormwater Management

Proceedings ◽

10.3390/proceedings2110607 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (11) ◽

pp. 607 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Vasiliki Ioannidou ◽

Scott Arthur

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Stormwater Management ◽

Hydrological Response ◽

Short Term ◽

Rainfall Events ◽

Permeable Pavement ◽

The World ◽

High Flood ◽

The Impact ◽

Sustainable Drainage Systems

Nowadays there is an increasing amount of everyday flood incidents around the world, the impact of which poses a challenge on the society, economy and environment. Under the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), green infrastructure provided by sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) is the recommended policy to manage and treat storm water. This paper presents experimental work carried out in the laboratory on a permeable pavement rig, investigating mainly the short-term hydrology of the pavement, and the way that runoff percolates through the structure during simulated rainfall events. Results showed high flood mitigation capacity, encouraging further investigation of this type of SuDS.

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Impact of Urban Vegetation on Outdoor Thermal Comfort: Comparison between a Mediterranean City (Lecce, Italy) and a Northern European City (Lahti, Finland)

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11020228 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 228 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Elisa Gatto ◽

Riccardo Buccolieri ◽

Eeva Aarrevaara ◽

Fabio Ippolito ◽

Rohinton Emmanuel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thermal Comfort ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Outdoor Thermal Comfort ◽

European City ◽

Northern European ◽

Alternative Scenarios ◽

Radiant Temperature ◽

The Impact ◽

Mediterranean City

This paper is devoted to the application of the modelling approach, as one of the methods for the evaluation of thermal comfort, to neighborhoods located in two cities characterized by a different climate, i.e., a Mediterranean city in southern Italy (Lecce) and a northern European city in southern Finland (Lahti). The impact of the presence of vegetation in both places is evaluated and compared, further considering alternative scenarios for thermal comfort improvement. The thermal comfort condition is expressed in terms of indices (mean radiant temperature (MRT) and predicted mean vote (PMV)). Results show that at pedestrian level the presence of vegetation lead to an improvement of thermal comfort in summer of about 2 points in both neighborhoods. This improvement is also evident observing the spatial distribution of MRT with a difference of 7 °C in the Lecce neighborhood and 3 °C in Lahti. In winter, thermal discomfort is observed in the presence of vegetation with a difference of 1.3 °C in the Lecce neighborhood and 1.5 °C in Lahti in terms of MRT. However, trees and green cover have the important potential to offset climate change impact and to make urban environments less thermally stressful. This study aims to guide urban planners towards a motivated and necessary transaction towards new green infrastructure whose effect should, however, be analyzed and investigated case by case.

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Urban Heat Islands and Thermal Comfort: A Case Study of Zorrotzaurre Island in Bilbao

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13116106 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 6106

Author(s):

Irantzu Alvarez ◽

Laura Quesada-Ganuza ◽

Estibaliz Briz ◽

Leire Garmendia

Keyword(s):

Thermal Comfort ◽

Heat Waves ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Urban Heat Islands ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Climate Index ◽

Physiological Equivalent Temperature ◽

Heat Islands ◽

The North ◽

The Impact

This study assesses the impact of a heat wave on the thermal comfort of an unconstructed area: the North Zone of the Island of Zorrotzaurre (Bilbao, Spain). In this study, the impact of urban planning as proposed in the master plan on thermal comfort is modeled using the ENVI-met program. Likewise, the question of whether the urbanistic proposals are designed to create more resilient urban environments is analyzed in the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events, especially heat waves. The study is centered on the analysis of temperature variables (air temperature and average radiant temperature) as well as wind speed and relative humidity. This was completed with the parameters of thermal comfort, the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) and the Universal Temperature Climate Index (UTCI) for the hours of the maximum and minimum daily temperatures. The results demonstrated the viability of analyzing thermal comfort through simulations with the ENVI-met program in order to analyze the behavior of urban spaces in various climate scenarios.

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Soil Moisture Dynamics in Response to Precipitation and Thinning in a Semi-Dry Forest in Northern Mexico

Water ◽

10.3390/w13010105 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 105

Author(s):

Argelia E. Rascón-Ramos ◽

Martín Martínez-Salvador ◽

Gabriel Sosa-Pérez ◽

Federico Villarreal-Guerrero ◽

Alfredo Pinedo-Alvarez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Forest Management ◽

Water Availability ◽

Dry Forest ◽

Rainfall Events ◽

Rainfall Characteristics ◽

Northern Mexico ◽

The Difference ◽

The Impact ◽

Moisture Dynamics

Understanding soil moisture behavior in semi-dry forests is essential for evaluating the impact of forest management on water availability. The objective of the study was to analyze soil moisture based in storm observations in three micro-catchments (0.19, 0.20, and 0.27 ha) with similar tree densities, and subject to different thinning intensities in a semi-dry forest in Chihuahua, Mexico. Vegetation, soil characteristics, precipitation, and volumetric water content were measured before thinning (2018), and after 0%, 40%, and 80% thinning for each micro-catchment (2019). Soil moisture was low and relatively similar among the three micro-catchments in 2018 (mean = 8.5%), and only large rainfall events (>30 mm) increased soil moisture significantly (29–52%). After thinning, soil moisture was higher and significantly different among the micro-catchments only during small rainfall events (<10 mm), while a difference was not noted during large events. The difference before–after during small rainfall events was not significant for the control (0% thinning); whereas 40% and 80% thinning increased soil moisture significantly by 40% and 53%, respectively. Knowledge of the response of soil moisture as a result of thinning and rainfall characteristics has important implications, especially for evaluating the impact of forest management on water availability.

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Influence of Land Use on Avian Diversity in North African Urban Environments

Land ◽

10.3390/land10040434 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 434

Author(s):

Hani Amir Aouissi ◽

Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor ◽

Mostefa Ababsa ◽

Maria Boştenaru-Dan ◽

Mahmoud Tourki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Diversity Index ◽

Research Question ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Ecological Group ◽

Avian Diversity ◽

North African ◽

Index Method ◽

Urban Green Spaces

Land cover and use changes are important to study for their impact on ecosystem services and ultimately on sustainability. In urban environments, a particularly important research question addresses the relationship between urbanization-related changes and biodiversity, subject to controversies in the literature. Birds are an important ecological group, and useful for answering this question. The present study builds upon the hypothesis according to which avian diversity decreases with urbanization. In order to answer it, a sample of 4245 observations from 650 sites in Annaba, Algeria, obtained through the point abundance index method, were investigated by computing Shannon-Wiener’s diversity index and the species richness, mapping them, and analyzing the results statistically. The findings confirm the study hypothesis and are relevant for planning, as they stress the role of urban green spaces as biodiversity hotspots, and plead for the need of connecting them. From a planning perspective, the results emphasize the need for interconnecting the green infrastructure through avian corridors. Moreover, the results fill in an important lack of data on the biodiversity of the region, and are relevant for other similar Mediterranean areas. Future studies could use the findings to compare with data from other countries and continents.

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Testing the Effect of Hedge Height on Perceived Safety—A Landscape Design Intervention

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13095063 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 5063

Author(s):

Katinka H. Evensen ◽

Helena Nordh ◽

Ramzi Hassan ◽

Aslak Fyhri

Keyword(s):

Field Study ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Landscape Design ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Space Management ◽

Perceived Safety ◽

Urban Green Spaces ◽

Outdoor Spaces ◽

Surrounding Areas ◽

The Impact

Access to safe, green urban environments is important for quality of life in cities. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of a safety-enhancing landscape design measure on visitors’ experiences in an urban park. Additionally, this paper combines the use of field and virtual reality (VR) experiments, contributing methodological insights into how to evaluate safety measures in green space management and research on perceived safety. In a field experiment (n = 266), we explored whether the height of a hedge along a pathway influenced perceived safety among users. The field study showed that cutting down the hedge improved the perceived prospect of the immediate surrounding areas for female users, which again made them feel safer in the park. We developed a VR experiment for an evening scenario in the same environment (n = 19) to supplement the field study and test the effect of the intervention further. The VR experiment also found a gender effect on perceived safety, with females reporting lower perceived safety, but no effect was shown for the height of the hedge. The results in this study show that environmental attributes such as perceived prospect and concealment should be considered in the design and management of urban green spaces. Additionally, this research demonstrates an approach to conducting field experiments to test the effects of actual design interventions and then further developing these experiments using VR technology. Further research on perceived safety in outdoor spaces is needed to make use of this combined method’s potential.

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Survey Data Quality in Analyzing Harmonized Indicators of Protest Behavior: A Survey Data Recycling Approach

American Behavioral Scientist ◽

10.1177/00027642211021623 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 000276422110216

Author(s):

Kazimierz M. Slomczynski ◽

Irina Tomescu-Dubrow ◽

Ilona Wysmulek

Keyword(s):

Data Processing ◽

Data Quality ◽

Survey Data ◽

A Priori ◽

Data Sets ◽

New Approach ◽

Survey Quality ◽

Survey Error ◽

Ex Post ◽

The Impact

This article proposes a new approach to analyze protest participation measured in surveys of uneven quality. Because single international survey projects cover only a fraction of the world’s nations in specific periods, researchers increasingly turn to ex-post harmonization of different survey data sets not a priori designed as comparable. However, very few scholars systematically examine the impact of the survey data quality on substantive results. We argue that the variation in source data, especially deviations from standards of survey documentation, data processing, and computer files—proposed by methodologists of Total Survey Error, Survey Quality Monitoring, and Fitness for Intended Use—is important for analyzing protest behavior. In particular, we apply the Survey Data Recycling framework to investigate the extent to which indicators of attending demonstrations and signing petitions in 1,184 national survey projects are associated with measures of data quality, controlling for variability in the questionnaire items. We demonstrate that the null hypothesis of no impact of measures of survey quality on indicators of protest participation must be rejected. Measures of survey documentation, data processing, and computer records, taken together, explain over 5% of the intersurvey variance in the proportions of the populations attending demonstrations or signing petitions.

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Telephone-based consultation in an acute eye clinic service: A patient satisfaction survey

European Journal of Ophthalmology ◽

10.1177/11206721211030774 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 112067212110307

Author(s):

Julia Sieberer ◽

Patrick Hughes ◽

Indy Sian

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Professionals ◽

Medical Specialties ◽

New Approach ◽

High Satisfaction ◽

Negative Comments ◽

Patient Responses ◽

Set Up ◽

Strongly Agree ◽

The Impact ◽

Park Hospital

Objectives: The coronavirus pandemic has forced healthcare staff across all medical specialties to adapt new and different ways of working. A new approach has been set up in the Acute Referral Clinic (ARC) at Musgrove Park Hospital and a survey has been conducted to measure the impact of the new method on patient and healthcare professionals’ satisfaction with the new service. Methods: A telephone-based consultation was introduced in ARC at Musgrove Park Hospital in March 2020 and patients were instructed to fill out a questionnaire containing eight items using a Likert Scale 1 (‘very poor/disagree’) to 4 (‘very good/strongly agree’) plus two boxes for open positive and negative comments respectively. Likewise a questionnaire was designed in order to assess the healthcare professionals’ satisfaction using the new approach. Data collection took place over a two month period between the end of March 2020 and end of May 2020. The data underwent quality control and was analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: Patient responses illustrated high satisfaction scores with an overall rating of very good (89.4%). The healthcare professionals’ rating of the service was good (28.6% – ‘very good/strongly agree’, 57.1% – ‘good/agree’). The safety rating of the new approach was overall rated ‘very good’ with 90.4% and 71.4% of patients and healthcare professionals respectively. Conclusions: The telephone consultations introduced in the wake of COVID-19 are well accepted by both patients and doctors. There are some limitations of the approach, foremost being consultation time and clinic space but these do not outweigh the general benefit of this format amidst a pandemic setting.

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A Review of Photocatalytic Materials for Urban NOx Remediation

Catalysts ◽

10.3390/catal11060675 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 675

Author(s):

Hugo Savill Russell ◽

Louise Bøge Frederickson ◽

Ole Hertel ◽

Thomas Ellermann ◽

Steen Solvang Jensen

Keyword(s):

Photocatalytic Oxidation ◽

Urban Air Pollution ◽

Field Trials ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Physical Parameters ◽

Nox Removal ◽

Removal Efficiencies ◽

The Impact ◽

By Products ◽

Photocatalytic Materials

NOx is a pervasive pollutant in urban environments. This review assesses the current state of the art of photocatalytic oxidation materials, designed for the abatement of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the urban environment, and typically, but not exclusively based on titanium dioxide (TiO2). Field trials with existing commercial materials, such as paints, asphalt and concrete, in a range of environments including street canyons, car parks, tunnels, highways and open streets, are considered in-depth. Lab studies containing the most recent developments in the photocatalytic materials are also summarised, as well as studies investigating the impact of physical parameters on their efficiency. It is concluded that this technology may be useful as a part of the measures used to lower urban air pollution levels, yielding ∼2% NOx removal in the immediate area around the surface, for optimised TiO2, in some cases, but is not capable of the reported high NOx removal efficiencies >20% in outdoor urban environments, and can in some cases lower air quality by releasing hazardous by-products. However, research into new material is ongoing. The reason for the mixed results in the studies reviewed, and massive range of removal efficiencies reported (from negligible and up to >80%) is mainly the large range of testing practices used. Before deployment in individual environments site-specific testing should be performed, and new standards for lab and field testing should be developed. The longevity of the materials and their potential for producing hazardous by-products should also be considered.

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Assessment of Rainfall-Induced Landslide Distribution Based on Land Disturbance in Southern Taiwan

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi10040209 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 209

Author(s):

Chih-Ming Tseng ◽

Yie-Ruey Chen ◽

Chwen-Ming Chang ◽

Yung-Sheng Chue ◽

Shun-Chieh Hsieh

Keyword(s):

Satellite Image ◽

Extreme Rainfall ◽

Land Area ◽

Rainfall Events ◽

Land Disturbance ◽

Bare Land ◽

Southern Taiwan ◽

The Impact ◽

Landslide Distribution ◽

The Relationship

This study explores the impact of rainfall on the followed-up landslides after a severe typhoon and the relationship between various rainfall events and the occurrence, scale, and regional characteristics of the landslides, including second landslides. Moreover, the influence of land disturbance was evaluated. The genetic adaptive neural network was used in combination with the texture analysis of the geographic information system for satellite image classification and interpretation to analyze land-use change and retrieve disaster records and surface information after five rainfall events from Typhoon Morakot (2009) to Typhoon Nanmadol (2011). The results revealed that except for extreme Morakot rains, the greater the degree of slope disturbance after rain, the larger the exposed slope. Extreme rainfall similar to Morakot strikes may have a greater impact on the bare land area than on slope disturbance. Moreover, the relationship between the bare land area and the index of land disturbance condition (ILDC) is positive, and the ratio of the bare land area to the quantity of bare land after each rainfall increases with the ILDC. With higher effective accumulative rainfall on the slope in the study area or greater slope disturbance, the landslide area at the second landslide point tended to increase.

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