A framework supporting green stormwater management for urban designers

Area of Science:

• Urban Planning and Design
• Environmental Engineering
• Landscape Architecture

Background:

• Urban Green Space (UGS) design faces challenges in resource optimization and diverse development needs.
• Existing design processes are often data-intensive and require significant expert input.
• Effective stormwater management is crucial for urban sustainability and resilience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel design support tool for multi-objective Urban Green Space (UGS) design.
• To integrate stormwater management analysis into the Rhinoceros + Grasshopper platform.
• To overcome data and expert limitations in current UGS design practices.

Main Methods:

• Development of a design support tool with three core features: stormwater volume quantification, required space estimation, and facility option provision.
• Integration of the tool within the Rhinoceros + Grasshopper 3D modeling environment.
• Application of the tool across five design scenarios to evaluate its effectiveness.

Main Results:

• Dispersed UGS layouts were found to collect more stormwater than aggregated layouts of equivalent total area.
• The tool successfully considered the influence of changing weather patterns on passive stormwater collection.
• Recommendations for facility areas and locations were generated, enhancing collaborative design processes.

Conclusions:

• The developed design support tool empowers urban designers to effectively address stormwater management in UGS.
• The tool facilitates the creation of more sustainable and resilient urban landscapes.
• It enhances collaborative urban and landscape design by providing data-driven insights for stormwater management.