Green Infrastructures in Stormwater Control and Treatment Strategies

Green infrastructures can provide multiple benefits and play an important role in cities’ resilience to extreme stormwater events caused by climate change. Additionally, these techniques can contribute to the protection of transport infrastructures, averting major environmental and economical adversities. Stormwater can be treated through several processes, some processes being more effective than others for specific contaminants. A review of some of the most commonly used GI for stormwater management in urban environments was carried out, with emphasis on their efficiency in reducing peak flow rates, runoff volumes and the following pollutants: total suspended solids, heavy metals, total phosphorus and total nitrogen. The GI studied were green roofs, bioretention systems, filter strips, vegetated swales and trenches. In addition to the advantages in the urban water cycle, benefits of amenity and ecosystem services of these GI have also been identified. The discussion of the results and the comparative analysis of GI performance were carried out taking advantage of a table that summarizes the range of percentages of GI efficiency obtained in the various studies for the different functions.