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
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.
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, 2017. 171(4), 191-202. DOI: 10.1680/jwama.16.00103
Fenner R. Spatial evaluation of multiple benefits to encourage multi-functional design in blue green cities. Water. 9(12), 953, 2017. DOI:10.3390/w9120953.
Guan M, Ahilan S, Yu D, Peng Y and Wright N. Numerical modelling of hydro-morphological processes dominated by fine suspended sediment in a stormwater pond. Journal of Hydrology, 2017. 556, 87-99. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.11.006
Morgan M and Fenner R. Spatial evaluation of the multiple benefits of sustainable drainage systems. Proceedings of the ICE – Water Management, 2017. DOI:10.1680/jwama.16.00048.
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)
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’