Stormwater management challenges as revealed through a design experiment with professional landscape architects

Abstract

Despite a number of potential benefits, using the urban landscape for managing stormwater runoff is spreading rather slowly. As urban planners and landscape architects are considered key protagonists of this trend, the objective of the study was to identify the challenges they confront when asked to retrofit an urban landscape for the management of stormwater runoff. Monitoring a two-week design experiment involving six teams of professional landscape architects identified 11 challenges, including sizing of elements, estimating costs, understanding water dynamics, aspects of biodiversity promotion, and dealing with land administrations and ownership issues. Measures to address the challenges are discussed. It should be noted that all six teams approached the stormwater management challenge in an energetic and focused way, applying their technical, personal and site-specific knowledge, and delivered innovative, flexible and coherent solutions. This emphasizes that the design process constitutes a strong and unique problem solving tool.