A review is made of current methods for assessing future changes in urban rainfall extremes and their effects on urban drainage systems, due to anthropogenic-induced climate change. The review concludes that in spite of significant advances there are still many limitations in our understanding of how to describe precipitation patterns in a changing climate in order to design and operate urban drainage infrastructure. Climate change may well be the driver that ensures that changes in urban drainage paradigms are identified and suitable solutions implemented. Design and optimization of urban drainage infrastructure considering climate change impacts and co-optimizing these with other objectives will become ever more important to keep our cities habitable into the future.
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Research Article|
July 01 2013
Impacts of climate change on rainfall extremes and urban drainage systems: a review
K. Arnbjerg-Nielsen;
1Technical University of Denmark, Department of Environmental Engineering, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
E-mail: karn@env.dtu.dk
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P. Willems;
P. Willems
2University of Leuven, Hydraulics Division, Kasteelpark Arenberg 40, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium
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J. Olsson;
J. Olsson
3Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Research and Development (Hydrology), SE-601 76 Norrkoping, Sweden
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S. Beecham;
S. Beecham
4University of South Australia, School of Natural and Built Environments, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia
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A. Pathirana;
A. Pathirana
5UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Westvest 7, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands
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I. Bülow Gregersen;
I. Bülow Gregersen
1Technical University of Denmark, Department of Environmental Engineering, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark
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V.-T.-V. Nguyen
V.-T.-V. Nguyen
7McGill University, Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2K6
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Water Sci Technol (2013) 68 (1): 16–28.
Article history
Received:
December 26 2012
Accepted:
March 07 2013
Citation
K. Arnbjerg-Nielsen, P. Willems, J. Olsson, S. Beecham, A. Pathirana, I. Bülow Gregersen, H. Madsen, V.-T.-V. Nguyen; Impacts of climate change on rainfall extremes and urban drainage systems: a review. Water Sci Technol 1 July 2013; 68 (1): 16–28. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2013.251
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