Integrated planning framework for urban stormwater management: one water approach

Flooded streets and homes, polluted surface waters, degraded aquatic habitats, stressed aquifers, and expensive drainage infrastructures are evidence that Canada’s current approach to stormwater management requires rethinking. To address these challenges, the authors developed an integrated community-level urban stormwater decision support framework. The framework assesses low impact development infrastructure, traditional stormwater infrastructure, and community-level stormwater reuse schemes to better understand the interactions between various water resources in the context of various stormwater management strategies. The framework also incorporates stochastic variation in natural processes to predict a community’s water footprint using the One Water Approach. A climate change sensitivity analysis is also incorporated to test proposed stormwater systems for resiliency to climate change. Fuzzy clustering analysis was then performed to identify the most appropriate stormwater management strategy. A case study demonstration of the framework was performed for a hypothetical 80-hectare mixed-use urban community in Kelowna, British Columbia.