Comprehensive Assessment of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis via a Case Study of the University of Melbourne, Australia
Water sensitive urban design (WSUD), as a typical green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), contains various facilities to decrease the urbanization impacts and enhance the values of amenity, ecosystem, and livability in Australia. Although WSUD has developed over 30 years, existing studies for WSUD pe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-10-01
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| Series: | Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/10/2885 |
| _version_ | 1797550754956836864 |
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| author | Hanxiang Xiong Yafei Sun Xingwei Ren |
| author_facet | Hanxiang Xiong Yafei Sun Xingwei Ren |
| author_sort | Hanxiang Xiong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Water sensitive urban design (WSUD), as a typical green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), contains various facilities to decrease the urbanization impacts and enhance the values of amenity, ecosystem, and livability in Australia. Although WSUD has developed over 30 years, existing studies for WSUD performances have sometimes ignored its economic and social benefits, and there is still a lack of an integrated framework to optimize the GSI combinations based on various criteria in a site. This paper aims to utilize “score-rank-select” strategy to comprehensively assess WSUD combination scenarios from functional, economic, social, and environmental aspects, by taking the University of Melbourne (Parkville campus) as a case study. In detail, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was used for weight determination and scenario comparison. The results showed that scenario 4 with 52% green WSUD facilities had the highest assessment score (0.771) among the five scenarios, while the final score (0.758) of scenario 5 was lower than scenario 4 although its green facility proportion reached 69%. The trade-off relation between the proportion of grey and green WSUD facilities was further demonstrated. Additionally, this paper strongly recommends that the MCDA-based comprehensive assessment framework described here can be generally promoted for the water sector to solve the decision-making problems. The use of such a framework can further promote sustainable development by helping water managers to make informed and inclusive decisions involving a variety of factors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:33:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c96ea24ab320471cad6f1bad55426895 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4441 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:33:56Z |
| publishDate | 2020-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-c96ea24ab320471cad6f1bad554268952023-11-20T17:24:05ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412020-10-011210288510.3390/w12102885Comprehensive Assessment of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis via a Case Study of the University of Melbourne, AustraliaHanxiang Xiong0Yafei Sun1Xingwei Ren2Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, ChinaDepartment of Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010, AustraliaFaculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, ChinaWater sensitive urban design (WSUD), as a typical green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), contains various facilities to decrease the urbanization impacts and enhance the values of amenity, ecosystem, and livability in Australia. Although WSUD has developed over 30 years, existing studies for WSUD performances have sometimes ignored its economic and social benefits, and there is still a lack of an integrated framework to optimize the GSI combinations based on various criteria in a site. This paper aims to utilize “score-rank-select” strategy to comprehensively assess WSUD combination scenarios from functional, economic, social, and environmental aspects, by taking the University of Melbourne (Parkville campus) as a case study. In detail, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was used for weight determination and scenario comparison. The results showed that scenario 4 with 52% green WSUD facilities had the highest assessment score (0.771) among the five scenarios, while the final score (0.758) of scenario 5 was lower than scenario 4 although its green facility proportion reached 69%. The trade-off relation between the proportion of grey and green WSUD facilities was further demonstrated. Additionally, this paper strongly recommends that the MCDA-based comprehensive assessment framework described here can be generally promoted for the water sector to solve the decision-making problems. The use of such a framework can further promote sustainable development by helping water managers to make informed and inclusive decisions involving a variety of factors.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/10/2885urbanizationWSUDstormwaterMCDAcomprehensive assessmentgreen stormwater infrastructure |
| spellingShingle | Hanxiang Xiong Yafei Sun Xingwei Ren Comprehensive Assessment of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis via a Case Study of the University of Melbourne, Australia Water urbanization WSUD stormwater MCDA comprehensive assessment green stormwater infrastructure |
| title | Comprehensive Assessment of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis via a Case Study of the University of Melbourne, Australia |
| title_full | Comprehensive Assessment of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis via a Case Study of the University of Melbourne, Australia |
| title_fullStr | Comprehensive Assessment of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis via a Case Study of the University of Melbourne, Australia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comprehensive Assessment of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis via a Case Study of the University of Melbourne, Australia |
| title_short | Comprehensive Assessment of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis via a Case Study of the University of Melbourne, Australia |
| title_sort | comprehensive assessment of water sensitive urban design practices based on multi criteria decision analysis via a case study of the university of melbourne australia |
| topic | urbanization WSUD stormwater MCDA comprehensive assessment green stormwater infrastructure |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/10/2885 |
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