Integrated urban stormwater management: Evolution and multidisciplinary perspective

Abstract

This paper proposes an introductory review of the historical evolution of urban stormwater management, as well as of current trends, challenges, and changes of paradigm. It reminds us first that most of the existing urban stormwater infrastructures in developed cities are based on the modern urban sewer systems developed in the second half of the 19^th century in Europe. They have been built and for decades managed almost solely by urban sanitation and water specialists, relatively independently of other technical services and, more generally, of other stakeholders in cities. They contributed significantly to public health and fast conveyance of stormwater outside the cities. However, at the turn of the 1970s, it became evident with increasing urbanisation that they also had drawbacks: artificialisation of soils, reduction of aquifer recharge, pollution of surface water and ecological impacts, etc. The paper indicates how new concepts and paradigms thereafter emerged to manage stormwater by means of more sustainable and integrated approaches, aiming to solve the problems engendered by the previous approaches. This integration embraces more and more disciplines and issues, far beyond the traditional field of urban water engineers and specialists. The paper attempts to explain the need for this evolution, making urban stormwater management more much complex, dealing and interacting with ecology, biodiversity, bioinspiration, architecture, landscape and water values, citizens’ well-being, history, culture, and socio-economic aspects.