Soft systems methodology and integrated flood management: a study of the Adayar watershed,Chennai, India

This paper applies Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) within the context of action research and Integrated Flood Management (IFM). A case study from the Adayar watershed, Chennai, is provided as an example of how SSM can be used to understand complex situations and as a problem‐solving strategy for flood management. Flat topography, uncontrolled urban development, population growth, sand bar formation at the river mouth and low tidal action render complexity to flood management in Chennai. For effective flood management, a participatory and integrated approach, which includes stakeholders in the decision‐making process and an enabling institutional set‐up, is essential. As part of an integrated approach, the relationship between various organizations and the public is identified. SSM is an approach for addressing fuzzy problematic situations involving human activity. In this paper, SSM techniques like ‘Rich Picture Diagrams’ and ‘CATWOE analysis’ and participatory action research tools like ‘pairwise ranking’ and ‘force field analysis’ were investigated. Two workshops were conducted to define and explore the problematic situation, the role of various actors involved in the problem, to develop the conceptual model, to rank decision‐making criteria, and to analyse the forces for and against to solve the problem. The flood management approach provided in this paper can be used by government agencies and policy makers to manage floods.     

The Governance of Local Urban Climate Adaptation: Towards Participation,Collaboration and Shared Responsibilities

This paper focuses on understanding the institutional determinants of adaptive capacity to illustrate emerging challenges and opportunities for climate adaptation in the context of urban pluvial flood risk management. The paper explores and compares the formal-legal as well as the perceived roles and responsibilities of key actor groups in the context of adaptation to urban pluvial flooding in the Dutch city Arnhem. The concluding section questions the assumed power of formal-legal rules and institutions in motivating key stakeholders to take action. It poses that, in order to stimulate participation and collaboration in local climate adaptation, more attention should be paid to the informal institutional context, in particular to the perception of responsibilities.     

A scenario-based approach to assess Ho Chi Minh City’s urban development strategies against the impact of climate change

This paper presents an approach to quantifying current and future city-wide flood risks to Ho Chi Minh City. Here urban planning scenarios linking urban development and climate change explore the main driving forces of future risk. According to the redefined role of urban environmental planning in times of climate change, spatial planning needs to go beyond traditional planning approaches to bring together, draw upon and integrate individual policies for urban adaptation strategies for land-use planning. Our initial research results highlight that the spatiotemporal processes of urban development, together with climate change, are the central driving forces for climate-related impacts. The influence of planned urban developments to the year 2025 on future flood risk is seen to be significantly greater than that of projected sea-level rise to the year 2100. These results aid local decision making in an effort to better understand the nature of future climate change risks to the city and to identify the main driver of urban exposure.     

增强现实技术于洪水风险沟通中的应用

气候变迁,特别是洪水问题给地处三角洲的城市带来了与日俱增的风险。作为应对手段,提出一种整合性的洪水风险管理方法,该方法确保了洪水风险沟通在洪水风险管理战略中的重要地位。洪水的可视化作为洪水风险沟通的一种工具,在改变人们对洪水风险的观念方面有着强大的作用。它可以通过互动的方式,使当地的利益相关者了解洪水的剩余风险和未来风险。其中增强现实技术作为一种可视化手段,它的快速发展与应用为风景园林设计、规划与教育等领域提供了崭新的交互方式。首先,探讨增强现实技术(AR)在洪水风险沟通中的应用现状,并重点关注增强现实技术的2个关键应用领域:对现场决策的支持和针对高层次设计的可视化与对景观干预的评估。随后,展示一种基于增强现实技术所开发的应用,该款创新性的应用为洪水风险沟通提供了一种轻量化的可视化手段。     

Urban flood impact assessment: A state-of-the-art review

Flooding can cause major disruptions in cities, and lead to significant impacts on people, the economy and on the environment. These impacts may be exacerbated by climate and socio-economic changes. Resilience thinking has become an important way for city planners and decision makers to manage flood risks.

Despite different definitions of resilience, a consistent theme is that flood resilient cities are impacted less by extreme flood events. Therefore, flood risk professionals and planners need to understand flood impacts to build flood resilient cities. This paper presents a state-of-the-art literature review on flood impact assessment in urban areas, detailing their application, and their limitations. It describes both techniques for dealing with individual categories of impacts, as well as methodologies for integrating them. The paper will also identify future avenues for progress in improving the techniques.     

高密度沿海地区洪涝风险评价与适应性规划策略 ——以深圳湾地区为例

气候变化背景下，高密度沿海城市受 到风暴潮和极端降雨引起的洪涝灾害冲击。文 章基于韧性理论构建城市空间洪涝风险指标 体系，制定该评价框架的实施路径；基于水文 软件Mike21、GIS平台及其空间网络分析插件 sDNA，复合“天鸽”台风风暴潮与极端降雨情 景，整合深圳湾地区的路网和土地利用进行危 险性、暴露度、脆弱性和适应能力等多源数据； 通过GIS栅格计算得到各要素层分析及洪涝风 险评价可视化地图，结果显示，潮、洪、涝突破 刚性标准加剧了危险性，高密度城市环境增大了 危险区域的暴露度，路网和土地利用布局具有 一定脆弱性，需完善应急疏散和避难场所规划以增强适应能力；根据评价地图识别高风险片区，从路网和土地利用等城市空间物质要素出发， 提出应对洪涝灾害的适应性规划策略。     

Review of multi-criteria decision aid for integrated sustainability assessment of urban water systems

Integrated sustainability assessment is part of a new paradigm for urban water decision making. Multi-criteria decision aid (MCDA) is an integrative framework used in urban water sustainability assessment, which has a particular focus on utilising stakeholder participation. Here MCDA is reviewed in the context of urban water management used in a decision making framework. Three other commonly used integrated approaches in urban water management (cost-benefit analysis, triple bottom line and integrated assessment) are compared with MCDA. Generic types of shortcomings associated with MCDA are discussed to provide an understanding of MCDA's limitation in urban water management decision making; including 1) preferential independency, 2) double counting and under-counting, and 3) transparency of MCDA methods and results.     

Is Bangkok becoming more resilient to flooding? A framing analysis of Bangkok's flood resilience policy combining insights from both insiders and outsiders

The rapidly urbanizing cities in Southeast Asia experience increasing flood impacts due to the consequences of climate change. In these cities, policy efforts to build flood resilience are gaining momentum. The aim of this paper is to understand and assess flood resilience policy development, particularly in cities in developing countries. Bangkok is one of the cities that participates in the 100 Resilient Cities Programme (100RC) - the international policy platform for building resilient cities. In 2017, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) launched the ‘Bangkok Resilience Strategy’ to translate the resilience concept to its urban context. A framing perspective is adopted to reconstruct the strategy, process and anticipated outcome of Bangkok's flood resilience policy. We studied data obtained from ‘insiders’ (involved policy makers, experts and consultants) and ‘outsiders’ (local communities, civil society organizations and news media). Findings indicate that the economic growth frame is prevailing in the development of Bangkok's flood resilience policy, prioritizing structural flood protection with little attention for flood adaptation measures and related social impacts among vulnerable communities. The role of local communities and civil society in the formulation of Bangkok's flood resilience policy is limited. This paper therefore recommends cities in developing countries and cities in the 100RC Programme to organize a more inclusive resilience building process for addressing social problems regarding urban poor communities along with increasing flood safety and protection.     

The logic of design: its role in understanding the antecedents of urban informality

ABSTRACT

The everyday life of a city can generate informality in urban space, particularly in emerging economies. Using the grounded theory approach, this paper looks at how urban space in a market precinct is negotiated through tactics of street vendors and strategies of the government. It draws upon Herbert Simon’s work on decision making to show how a vendor moves from an existing situation to a preferred situation and terms this as situation satisfaction. It suggests a theoretical framework to understand the relation between the logic, decision and action of stakeholders to resolve the conflict between planning criteria and ground reality.     

Place Making in Shanghai Hongqiao Business District: An Institutional Capacity Perspective

The pro-growth, state-led institutional setting in China makes it easy to build infrastructure and physical space. Nevertheless despite the aspiration to create the qualities often associated with place making, many urban developments around new High-Speed Railway hubs lack essential urban qualities. This paper uses the idea of institutional capacity to explore the conditions that, in the Chinese context, might contribute to place making. The Hongqiao Business District, developed around a new transportation hub in western Shanghai indicates that the involvement of a varied set of actors that is not only guided by hierarchical relationships has several consequences for place making. It allows for value capturing to support unprofitable components of development plans such as public space. Furthermore, it turns actors on the district and street-offices level into constructive stakeholders of urban mega-projects and creates awareness of the importance of open knowledge management (transparency of information openness, use of local knowledge, etc.). While the Hongqiao conditions might not be copied straightforward to other Chinese cases, they could provide a source of inspiration for other projects that strive for urban quality.     

意大利消防工作概况

意大利地处环地中海国家，常年来由于地中海气候的影响，该国每到春、秋季节就到了防止野外火灾的重要时刻，并且由于最近几年受全球气候变化的影响，该国都灵和卡裹亚裹地区每到春季必将发生较大洪水泛滥灾害事故。因此，意大利政府一直致力干如何加强环地中海沿岸山区的防火工作和提高处置洪涝等自然灾害事故的能力。     

Hidden from the wind and enjoying the water (藏风得水): the traditional cosmology of fengshui and the shaping of Dong villages in Southwestern China

When organising their villages, the Dong interpret the natural environment from a culture-based perspective within their traditional cosmology. This paper explores the metaphorical meanings of the winds, the water of life and the awareness of life breath qi as they are integrated into the practice of fengshui. These principles are applied by the Dong people when organising their villages, monuments and vernacular architecture. This paper particularly examines several Dong communities that share similar topography but were developed in strikingly different ways. In conclusion, this paper argues that the approach of the Dong, when siting their villages, is based on their traditional cosmology and the context of local culture but also their interpretation responding to specific situations that produce different solutions.     

城市拟消解——南京市城南地区旧住区改造策略研究

本文立足于当前城市现状,针对社会结构、文化脉络、物质空间的消解状态,对南京老城南旧居住区进行"拟消解"设计分析,以促进城市社会结构的修复,使其文化脉络得以继承、物质空间得以再生,以局部的"逆消解"实现对原在的空间片断、社会关系、人文脉络的整理和复合。     

Climate-related uncertainties in urban exposure to sea level rise and storm surge flooding: a multi-temporal and multi-scenario analysis

Climate change-induced sea level rise and intensified storms pose emerging flood threats to global coastal urban areas. While such threats have been mapped, their uncertainties from different climate scenarios and longer planning horizons have yet to be addressed from both an exposure assessment and a stakeholder outreach perspective. Therefore, we chose the highly urbanized San Francisco Bay Area as an example to project its flood areas every 20 years between 2000 and 2100, under 24 varied climate scenarios with two greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration levels. We then assessed flood exposure by intersecting the flood areas with demographic and socioeconomic distributions, developed areas, lifeline infrastructures, and emergency responders in low elevation (<10 m) coastal zones. Our median estimates under the low GHG scenarios indicated that 10–38% of the items assessed above are flood-exposed in 2000–2020, with this exposure increasing to 20–54% during 2080–2100. The median estimates under the high GHG scenarios for the same periods are 0–35% and 40–67%, respectively. The expected uncertainties, or standard deviations, of the exposures for a given item assessed above under the low and high GHG scenarios are 1–2% in 2000–2020 and 7–10% in 2080–2100. Despite our modeling capability for a range of climate scenarios over the long term, some stakeholders, particularly those in the private sector, prefer near-term results with lower uncertainties. This implies the need for coastal urban areas to cope with climate-related uncertainties and to focus on the long term when developing strategies and policies for climate change adaptation.     

Trends in risk assessment and risk management

Environmental risk assessment has matured into a powerful analytical tool, which is finding ever-wider applications in the arena of policy making and regulation. However, the principal focus of its development to date has been on the technical challenges of characterising and modelling the environmental behaviour and biological action of chemicals, whereas issues concerning its broader socio-political context have been generally neglected. Problem definition, risk analysis and decision making have, therefore, tended to be dominated by experts and by expert opinion. Fresh insights from the social sciences advocate a pluralistic, inclusive approach, with experts participating alongside other stakeholders in a consensual decision making process. Adoption of this paradigm has far reaching consequences for the form and conduct of risk assessment and risk management.     

Urban water security - what does it mean?

ABSTRACT

This research is focussed on understanding what urban water security means – a surprisingly elusive concept given the global shift from rural to urban living. We first make the case for a distinct urban water security definition. We then identify 25 unique water security definitions, of which three relate to the urban context but all with scope for improvement. Applying novel indices, we assess the prevalence, complexity and evolution of themes and dimensions within all definitions and find a stable spectrum of themes; but note a shifting emphasis towards environmental and social dimensions, away from quality and quantity of supply. Overall the definitions are becoming more comprehensive by simply listing more outcomes to be achieved. Instead of this ‘shopping-list’ approach, we propose a simplified urban water security definition with a focus on agreement of needs with community stakeholders, while using the themes to guide what the objectives might be.     

Resilient urban drainage – Options of an optimized area-management

There is a need for an integrated approach for all involved stakeholders to adapt urban infrastructures to climate change effects and to take into account uncertainties of future developments. By integrating all relevant planning disciplines, a first step towards implementation of resilient technical and social infrastructures can be achieved. With the major goal of optimizing area-management as part of water sensitive urban design, the water sector and its area requirements build the main focus of this study. After identifying local flood hazards and potential surficial retention areas, the additional usage of decentralized stormwater management facilities for flood protection is tested in selected sectors. The results of the study confirm that the combined usage of decentralized facilities for pluvial flooding is a first step to protect urban infrastructure. It shows that decentralized facilities are more flexible than centralized facilities and, thus, have a higher adaptation capacity which is needed considering the various effects of climate change.     

The study of power mechanisms—An interactive and generative approach to a case study of Swedish urban renewal

This article demonstrates a methodological approach to the study of power mechanisms. Power is analysed in the interaction between three dimensions: (1) decision‐making, (2) non‐decision‐making, and (3) power as influence on consciousness; and three levels: (1) the subject‐subject level, (2) the institutional practices, and (3) the more general structural and cultural conditions. The approach is applied in an intensive process‐oriented case study of Swedish urban renewal. The study demonstrates the accumulativeness of power and powerlessness, and how power mechanisms reinforce but also neutralise one another. How the mechanisms are expressed depends on the specific spatial, social and temporal context in which they operate. The methodological implication of this is that a process‐oriented approach is necessary. The study also shows the importance of incorporating an intermediate level between structure and action into the analysis of power.     

Developing the evidence base for mainstreaming adaptation of stormwater systems to climate change

In a context of high uncertainty about hydro-climatic variables, the development of updated methods for climate impact and adaptation assessment is as important, if not more important than the provision of improved climate change data. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid method to facilitate mainstreaming adaptation of stormwater systems to climate change: i.e., the Mainstreaming method. The Mainstreaming method starts with an analysis of adaptation tipping points (ATPs), which is effect-based. These are points of reference where the magnitude of climate change is such that acceptable technical, environmental, societal or economic standards may be compromised. It extends the ATP analysis to include aspects from a bottom-up approach. The extension concerns the analysis of adaptation opportunities in the stormwater system. The results from both analyses are then used in combination to identify and exploit Adaptation Mainstreaming Moments (AMMs). Use of this method will enhance the understanding of the adaptive potential of stormwater systems. We have applied the proposed hybrid method to the management of flood risk for an urban stormwater system in Dordrecht (the Netherlands). The main finding of this case study is that the application of the Mainstreaming method helps to increase the no-/low-regret character of adaptation for several reasons: it focuses the attention on the most urgent effects of climate change; it is expected to lead to potential cost reductions, since adaptation options can be integrated into infrastructure and building design at an early stage instead of being applied separately; it will lead to the development of area-specific responses, which could not have been developed on a higher scale level; it makes it possible to take account of local values and sensibilities, which contributes to increased public and political support for the adaptive strategies.     

Changing Interpretations of ‘Flexibility’ in the Planning Literature: From Opportunism to Creativity?

This article reflects on changing interpretations of flexibility in planning literature from the planning scholars' point of view. Flexibility was seen as a negative feature in the 1960s in the literature. In time, the literature shifted towards the idea that flexibility may be a positive asset that helps the stakeholders of urban development to cope with the challenges of growing complexity and diversity in urban space and society. In the recent literature, flexibility is associated with creativity. The article discusses recent trends in planning literature practice to explain this change.