Blue-Green Cities Research Snapshots
1. Project Title/ Problem Statement
Delivering and Evaluating Multiple Flood Risk Benefits in Blue-Green Cities
2. Name of Researcher and Institution
Dr Emily Lawson, University of Nottingham, on behalf of the Blue-Green Cities Research
Consortium.
3. Description of the Challenge
The combined impacts on social, economic and environmental systems make flooding one of the
World’s most serious hazards. Increasing frequency and magnitude of intense rainfall events in future
decades are predicted to increase flooding and damages incurred, particularly in cities where the
consequences are severe. There is thus a demand for innovative research that can help reduce the
probability and/or consequences of urban flooding while helping cities become more resilient and
adaptable to new flood risks imposed by climate change and economic development.
Water sensitive urban design and natural, non-traditional strategies for flood risk management aim to
reduce the amount of water entering man-made drainage systems while increasing the utilisation of
water on the surface (e.g. wetland, ponds) and abundance of green space (e.g. parks, swales). The
concept of a ‘Blue-Green City’ offers an alternative to traditional grey infrastructure (e.g. piped
drainage and waste water treatment systems). This new approach to flood risk management promotes
multi-functional landuse and can provide multiple benefits to society, the environment and the
economy. The challenge is to demonstrate the reliability and functionality of Blue-Green strategies
and increase awareness that their advantages extend to multiple stakeholders when the system is in
both flood and non-flood conditions.
4. Description of your Approach (or Solution)
The aim of the Consortium is to develop new strategies for managing urban flood risk as part of
wider, integrated urban planning intended to achieve environmental enhancement and urban renewal
in which multiple benefits of Blue-Green Cities are rigorously evaluated and understood. Research is
performed as a closely integrated and carefully sequenced set of five Work Packages, held together by
a strong communications package.
The Consortium are modelling existing flood risks using coupled surface/sub-surface hydrodynamic
models linked to semi-quantitative assessments of sediment/debris dynamics and habitats. Blue-Green
infrastructure is represented in models of urban inundation for case studies in Newcastle and Leeds,
and the morphology and transport of sediment and debris through Blue-Green is being assessed. The
Consortium is also developing frameworks to identify and understand the behavioural responses of
individual and institutional stakeholders to the options for urban flood risk management. This link
between physical processes and human behavioural patterns is highly innovative and will allow us to
analyse the urban ‘system of systems’ and highlight where, when and to whom the multiple benefits
will accrue under different future scenarios. This will allow us to rigorously evaluate the costs and
benefits of different strategies and appraise the relative significance of each benefit in a given
location. This will then be tested in a demonstration case study (Newcastle).
5. Benefit to the User
The Consortium aim to provide the following deliverables;
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In partnership with the City of Newcastle stakeholders a Learning and Action Alliance (LAA)
will be developed to negotiate the shared vision of a ‘Blue-Green City’

A guide to developing new strategies for managing urban flood risk and incorporating BlueGreen infrastructure in the design (based on reduced inundation extent and flood peaks)
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More detailed, understanding of sediment transport dynamics through Blue-Green infrastructure
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Evaluation and decision-support tools to value and appraise Blue-Green infrastructure and the
relative significance of associated benefits
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Co-production of more robust knowledge and understanding of uncertainty flows in flood risk
modelling
6. Future Work
The Blue-Green Cities Research Project will run until Feb 2016 and will focus specifically on
Newcastle, UK, the demonstration case study, in 2015. The applicability of the research methods will
be tested and will endeavour to incorporate the understanding and interest of key stakeholders in
urban flood risk management and connect this with the potential impact of adopting the Blue-Green
vision in a practical, real-life setting. In December 2014, the Consortium will also disseminate the
outputs from a UK-US collaborative project “Clean Water for All” that investigated the multiple
benefits of flood risk management and river restoration in Johnson Creek Watershed, Portland,
Oregon.
7. More Information
Blue-Green Cities Research Project Website
Blue-Green Cities blog
Blue-Green Cities Wikipedia entry
We are also on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Project Logo
Map of Research Consortium Institutions
University of Nottingham logo
8. Sources of Funding/Acknowledgments
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Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Northern Ireland Rivers Agency
Environment Agency