A comprehensive suitability assessment framework for low impact development (LID) incorporating life-cycle carbon benefits: A case study in Wuhan, China

Study region The study area is located in Qingshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Study focus Under the combined influences of climate change and rapid urbanization, urban pluvial flooding increasingly threatens infrastructure and public safety. Concurrently, accelerated urban development has intensified carbon-related environmental pressures. Low impact development (LID) emerges as an effective strategy for mitigating urbanization impacts through stormwater control and its carbon mitigation potential. However, existing LID suitability assessments for high-performance scheme design mainly focus on hydrological performance, with limited consideration of carbon processes. In this study, we develop an integrated framework that incorporates life-cycle carbon benefits into LID multi-objective optimization and multi-criteria suitability evaluation. The framework is applied in Wuhan, a national Sponge City pilot, using permeable pavements and bioretention cells as representative measures to derive optimal configurations under different planning objectives. New hydrological insights for the region The results indicate that schemes with higher proportions of permeable pavements achieve better runoff regulation performance. All optimized schemes act as net carbon sinks over the life cycle, and increasing total LID area significantly enhances carbon mitigation, with the reduction up to −26.4 Kt CO₂. Moreover, increasing the proportion of bioretention cells produces pronounced non-linear gains in net carbon reduction. The developed suitability assessment method can effectively balance multiple objectives under varying implementation priorities, contributing to flood management and low-carbon development in Sponge City construction.