Can Blue-Green Infrastructure enhance resilience in urban drainage systems during failure conditions?

The need to enhance the resilience of urban drainage systems (UDSs) in view of emerging global climate change and urbanisation threats is well recognised. Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) provides a suitable strategy for building the resilience of existing UDSs. However, there are limited quantitative studies that provide evidence of their effectiveness for increased uptake in cities. In this research, coupled one-dimensional–two-dimensional (1D–2D) modelling is applied to assess the effectiveness of BGI that include rainwater harvesting systems, infiltration trenches, bioretention cells, and detention ponds using two case study UDSs located in Kampala that experience catastrophic pluvial flooding caused by extreme rainfall. The resulting flooding impacts are quantified considering ‘failed’ and ‘non-failed’ UDS initial states, using total flood volume and average flood duration as system performance indicators. The study results suggest that spatially distributed rainwater harvesting systems singularly lead to a reduction in total flood volume and average flood duration of 16–45% and 18–24% in the case study UDSs, respectively. Furthermore, the study results suggest that BGIs are more effective during moderate rainfall (T < 10 years). Based on the study findings, city scale implementation of multifunctional rainwater harvesting systems is recommended as a suitable strategy for enhancing UDSs’ resilience.