Managing urban flood risk in Blue-Green Cities; the Clean Water for All initiative
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2018-12-04
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Emily C. O'Donnell, Colin R. Thorne and Jon Alan Yeakley, Managing urban flood risk in Blue‐Green cities: The Clean Water for All initiative, Journal of Flood Risk Management Volume 12, Issue 1 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12513
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This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Emily C. O'Donnell, Colin R. Thorne and Jon Alan Yeakley, Managing urban flood risk in Blue-Green cities: The Clean Water for All initiative, Journal of Flood Risk Management Volume 12, Issue 1 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12513, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12513. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Emily C. O'Donnell, Colin R. Thorne and Jon Alan Yeakley, Managing urban flood risk in Blue-Green cities: The Clean Water for All initiative, Journal of Flood Risk Management Volume 12, Issue 1 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12513, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12513. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
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Abstract
Portland, Oregon, USA, demonstrates many best practice examples of sustainable stormwater management that embrace the Blue‐Green ideal of reconfiguring the urban water cycle to more closely resemble the natural water cycle. For more than a decade, the City of Portland has invested widely in Blue‐Green infrastructure (BGI) to help reduce the number of combined sewer overflows (CSO) in the context of a state‐wide plan to restore Oregon's watersheds; recover fish and wildlife populations to sustainable levels; and provide ecological, cultural, and economic benefits (Yeakley & Dunham, 2014). These ongoing efforts have produced more than 2000 street bioswales; over 600 ecoroofs; tens of thousands of street trees; and supported extensive efforts involving culvert removal, reintroduction of native vegetation and animals (including beaver), land purchasing from willing sellers, and floodplain reconnection and restoration (BES, 2018). As Portland progresses towards becoming a Blue‐Green City (where predevelopment hydrology is mimicked through the restoration of natural drainage channels, improvements to water quality, increased infiltration and surface storage), a strong scientific evidence base has been compiled to support the implementation of multibeneficial, multifunctional low‐impact development (LID), and BGI. The abundance and range of implemented BGI assets and restoration schemes, combined with the relative age of some assets (over 10 years old) and consequential likelihood that they are increasingly viewed as “normal” within the urban landscape, made Portland an ideal demonstration case study under the EPSRC's “Clean Water for All” (CWfA) research initiative (2014–2015).