Sustainable urban drainage as a viable measure of coping with heat and floods due to climate change

Abstract

Climate change is pervasive, bringing about heat and floods. To address these hazards, better coping, adaptation and resilience are needed. Cities all over the world suffer from heat and flood disasters that account for significant losses. This paper examines the incidence of heat and flood occurrence in urban areas, and examines how sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) is used to combat them. The methodology is based on historical event analysis, literature review and secondary data. Results indicate that heat and flood hazards in cities can be effectively reduced by using SUD systems which incorporate vegetated surfaces that absorbs and retains rain water, purifies stormwater and transfers heat. Results show that SUD system reduces flood peaks and heat, thereby reducing the incidence of flash floods and heat islands. SUD system is recommended as a viable method of heat and flood control in cities as cities using SUDS were found to cope very well with heat and floods. Overall, technical measures of flood management such as SUDS are found to be effective, affordable, aesthetically pleasing and socially acceptable. A holistic strategy combing technical SUDSs and non-technical human aspects of coping and resilience is the key towards effective management of floods in cities.