Project Overview
The research team will investigate how planning, design, operation and organisation of both existing and new urban water systems might be envisaged and transformed in order to deliver multiple benefits (including flood resilience) under flood, normal and drought conditions.
The research is divided into five work packages (WP) to deliver three key elements of the research:
- Engineering design to enhance service delivery
- Engineering development for resource use across the drought-flood spectrum
- Urban flood risk management at the heart of urban planning at multiple scales
Recent Publications
Vercruysse K, Dawson D and Wright N (2019). Interoperability: a conceptual framework to bridge the gap between multi-functional and multi-system urban flood management. Journal of Flood Risk Management. DOI:10.1111/jfr3.12535.
Ahilan S, Guan M, Wright N, Sleigh A, Allen D, Arthur S, Haynes H, Krivtsov V (2019). Modelling the long-term suspended sedimentological effects on stormwater pond performance in an urban catchment. Journal of Hydrology. DOI:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.02.002.
Costa J, Fenner R and Kapetas L. A Screening Tool to Assess the Potential for Energy Recovery from the Discharge of Stormwater Runoff. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering Sustainability, 2018. DOI: 10.1680/jensu.18.00035.
Ahilan S, Melville-Shreeve P, Kapelan Z and Butler D. The influence of household rainwater harvesting system design on water supply and stormwater management efficiency. In: New Trends in Urban Drainage Modelling (Ed. G Mannina), pg 369-374, Springer, ISBN 33199986762018, 2018.
Everett G and Lamond J. Considering the value fo community engagement for (co-) producing Blue-Green infrastructure. Urban Water Systems & Floods II. WIT Transactions on The Built Environment, vol. 184, 2018. WIT Press. Pg 1-14.
O'Donnell E, Woodhouse R and Thorne C. Evaluating the multiple benefits of a Newcastle surface water management scheme. Proceedings of the ICE – Water Management, 2018. 171(4), 191-202. DOI: 10.1680/jwama.16.00103.
O'Donnell E, Lamond J and Thorne C. Learning and Action Alliance framework to facilitate stakeholder collaboration and social learning in urban flood risk management. Environmental Science and Policy, 2018. 80, 1-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2017.10.013.
Research Themes
WP1 Resilience: investigating how blue-green and grey approaches can be optimally combined under different future scenarios
WP2: Resource: exploring how stormwater can be used in both individual buildings and in the urban environment.
WP3: Interoperability: investigating how flood risk resilience measures affect mutiple urban infrastructure systems
WP4: Interactions: exploring citizens' interactions with blue-green and grey infrastructure
WP5: Practice: testing and applying our research two case study cities: Newcastle (retrofit) and Ebbsfleet (new build)
Key Project Outputs 2019
Published March 2019 (PDF 4.2 MB)
Meet the Team
Urban Flood Resilience is a multi-disciplinary research project led by Colin Thorne and Emily O'Donnell at the University of Nottingham.
Meet the Urban Flood Resilience team.
Case Study research
We will focus research on two case studies (see WP5):
- Newcastle (UK): to investigate how urban flood resilience can be achieved through retro-fit, in the context of urban renewal
- Ebbsfleet (UK) to investigate how urban flood resilience can be achieved in the context of new build in a ‘garden city’
Launch of the 2019 Blue-Green Declaration
The Blue-Green Path to Urban Flood Resilience
On 7th March 2019 we held an event in Newcastle showcasing progress with implementation of Blue-Green infrastructure in Newcastle and the wider NE. The achievements of the signatories of the 2016 Newcastle Declaration on Blue and Green Infrastructure were celebrated and new organisations committed to the Declaration. The Urban Flood Resilience team presented key research outputs to date (detailed in the Key Project Outputs report) and the 2019 Declaration was launched.
Keynote speakers included:
- Cllr Nick Kemp (Newcastle City Council)
- Richard Warneford (Northumbrian Water)
- Leila Huntington (Environment Agency)
- James Harris (RTPI)
- Justin Abbott (Arup)
- Iain Garfield (Newcastle University)
- Fola Ogunyoye (Royal HaskoningDHV)
- Eugene Milne (Newcastle City Council)
- Ola Holmstrom (Sweco)
- Lisa Stephenson (Groundwork NE & Cumbria)
- Gwen Rhodes (Stantec)
- Colin Thorne (University of Nottingham)
Sponsored by:
Presentations, speaker biographies and more details are available on our dissemination event page.