Extract

We report a practice-based interdisciplinary design and research project on Green Infrastructure (GI). GI strategies have been widely used in the urban environment to mitigate floods, with various modeling tools employed to forecast design performance. However, current knowledge is based primarily on modeling hypothetical scenarios, with relatively few empirical studies using technical design drawings as the input data for modeling. To address this gap, an interdisciplinary team consisting of experts from landscape architecture and hydrology integrated site design with modeling analysis. The project is focused on the Auto Mall area (28.9 ha) in Tucson, Arizona (USA). The area has the highest impervious cover percentage (86.5%) in the city, making it vulnerable to flash floods during Arizona’s monsoon season. Various GI retrofit designs are proposed, including increasing rainwater harvesting volumes (curb cut, bioswale, cistern), and reducing impervious cover areas (porous pavement, daylighting arroyo). The team completed three different designs and associated technical drawings. Preliminary modeling results show that the designs would provide around 3610 m3 runoff storage volume and reduce the discharge volume by 75% (1-yr 1-hr storms). Detailed analysis is being performed using the KINEROS hydrologic model to further compare the performance of design scenarios and their climate resilience.

Keywords: KINEROS, ecosystem services, urban design, hydrologic modelling

PDF

Download