Urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change: how can Nature-based Solutions contribute?
Urban areas are mostly highly sealed spaces, which often leads to large proportions of surface runoff. At the same time, heavy rainfall events are projected to increase in frequency and intensity with anthropogenic climate change. Consequently, higher risks and damages from pluvial flooding are expe...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2023.1081850/full |
| _version_ | 1797803705448267776 |
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| author | Thea Wübbelmann Thea Wübbelmann Kristian Förster Kristian Förster Laurens M. Bouwer Claudia Dworczyk Steffen Bender Benjamin Burkhard Benjamin Burkhard |
| author_facet | Thea Wübbelmann Thea Wübbelmann Kristian Förster Kristian Förster Laurens M. Bouwer Claudia Dworczyk Steffen Bender Benjamin Burkhard Benjamin Burkhard |
| author_sort | Thea Wübbelmann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Urban areas are mostly highly sealed spaces, which often leads to large proportions of surface runoff. At the same time, heavy rainfall events are projected to increase in frequency and intensity with anthropogenic climate change. Consequently, higher risks and damages from pluvial flooding are expected. The analysis of Flood Regulating Ecosystem Services (FRES) can help to determine the benefits from nature to people by reducing surface runoff and runoff peaks. However, urban FRES are rarely studied for heavy rainfall events under changing climate conditions. Therefore, we first estimate the functionality of current urban FRES-supply and demand under changing climate conditions. Second, we identify the effects of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) on FRES-supply and demand and their potential future functionality and benefits concerning more intensive rainfall events. A district of the city of Rostock in northeastern Germany serves as the case study area. In addition to the reference conditions based on the current land use, we investigate two potential NbS: (1) increasing the number of trees; and (2) unsealing and soil improvement. Both NbS and a combination of both are applied for three heavy rainfall scenarios. In addition to a reference scenario, two future scenarios were developed to investigate the FRES functionality, based on 21 and 28% more intense rainfall. While the potential FRES-demand was held constant, we assessed the FRES-supply and actual demand for all scenario combinations, using the hydrological model LEAFlood. The comparison between the actual demand and supply indicates the changes in FRES-supply surplus and unmet demand increase. Existing land use structures reached a FRES capacity and cannot buffer more intense rainfall events. Whereas, the NbS serve FRES benefits by increasing the supply and reducing the actual demand. Using FRES indicators, based on hydrological models to estimate future functionality under changing climate conditions and the benefits of NbS, can serve as an analysis and decision-support tool for decision-makers to reduce future urban flood risk. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:26:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0e195741616941cb89b5bffc59fae871 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2624-9375 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:26:03Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-0e195741616941cb89b5bffc59fae8712023-06-15T05:55:30ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Water2624-93752023-06-01510.3389/frwa.2023.10818501081850Urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change: how can Nature-based Solutions contribute?Thea Wübbelmann0Thea Wübbelmann1Kristian Förster2Kristian Förster3Laurens M. Bouwer4Claudia Dworczyk5Steffen Bender6Benjamin Burkhard7Benjamin Burkhard8Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Hamburg, GermanyInstitute of Physical Geography and Landscape Ecology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, GermanyInstitute of Hydrology and Water Resource Management, Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, GermanyInstitute of Ecology and Landscape, Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences, Freising, GermanyClimate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Hamburg, GermanyInstitute of Physical Geography and Landscape Ecology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, GermanyClimate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Hamburg, GermanyInstitute of Physical Geography and Landscape Ecology, Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, GermanyLeibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research ZALF, Müncheberg, GermanyUrban areas are mostly highly sealed spaces, which often leads to large proportions of surface runoff. At the same time, heavy rainfall events are projected to increase in frequency and intensity with anthropogenic climate change. Consequently, higher risks and damages from pluvial flooding are expected. The analysis of Flood Regulating Ecosystem Services (FRES) can help to determine the benefits from nature to people by reducing surface runoff and runoff peaks. However, urban FRES are rarely studied for heavy rainfall events under changing climate conditions. Therefore, we first estimate the functionality of current urban FRES-supply and demand under changing climate conditions. Second, we identify the effects of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) on FRES-supply and demand and their potential future functionality and benefits concerning more intensive rainfall events. A district of the city of Rostock in northeastern Germany serves as the case study area. In addition to the reference conditions based on the current land use, we investigate two potential NbS: (1) increasing the number of trees; and (2) unsealing and soil improvement. Both NbS and a combination of both are applied for three heavy rainfall scenarios. In addition to a reference scenario, two future scenarios were developed to investigate the FRES functionality, based on 21 and 28% more intense rainfall. While the potential FRES-demand was held constant, we assessed the FRES-supply and actual demand for all scenario combinations, using the hydrological model LEAFlood. The comparison between the actual demand and supply indicates the changes in FRES-supply surplus and unmet demand increase. Existing land use structures reached a FRES capacity and cannot buffer more intense rainfall events. Whereas, the NbS serve FRES benefits by increasing the supply and reducing the actual demand. Using FRES indicators, based on hydrological models to estimate future functionality under changing climate conditions and the benefits of NbS, can serve as an analysis and decision-support tool for decision-makers to reduce future urban flood risk.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2023.1081850/fullhydrological modelingclimate adaptationecosystem services supply and demandmismatch analysisscenarioscities |
| spellingShingle | Thea Wübbelmann Thea Wübbelmann Kristian Förster Kristian Förster Laurens M. Bouwer Claudia Dworczyk Steffen Bender Benjamin Burkhard Benjamin Burkhard Urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change: how can Nature-based Solutions contribute? Frontiers in Water hydrological modeling climate adaptation ecosystem services supply and demand mismatch analysis scenarios cities |
| title | Urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change: how can Nature-based Solutions contribute? |
| title_full | Urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change: how can Nature-based Solutions contribute? |
| title_fullStr | Urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change: how can Nature-based Solutions contribute? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change: how can Nature-based Solutions contribute? |
| title_short | Urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change: how can Nature-based Solutions contribute? |
| title_sort | urban flood regulating ecosystem services under climate change how can nature based solutions contribute |
| topic | hydrological modeling climate adaptation ecosystem services supply and demand mismatch analysis scenarios cities |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2023.1081850/full |
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