Nature-based solutions and Real-time control: Challenges and opportunities

Climate change and flood risk in urban areas has attracted growing attention to discussions over urban resilience and water quality improvement at urban drainage. Nature-based Solutions (NBS) as green infrastructures to urban drainage, when incorporated in urban planning, has proven to be an effective mitigation strategy both in terms of quantity and quality of runoff. The Real-time Control (RTC) applied in urban water can complement to both flood mitigation and improvement of water quality through the control of the elements of the drainage and sewage system to search for the optimal configurations. Although, it is required to have a quantitative and qualitative Real-time Monitoring (RTM) system and the application of actuators technology and intensive use of software to be able to use the RTC. This study assessed the improvement opportunities in NBS performances with RTC and the remaining challenges to integrating both methods. The requirements of RTC application were analyzed according to technologies already applied at the NBS systems. Additionally, our investigations showed that the devices related to NBS can benefit from RTC. However, the most significant potential gains with the application of RTC are the techniques that can operate as storages such as bioretention, green roofs and bioswales. Despite the potential increase in costs for the construction of NBS, the benefits of applying the RTC can assist both resilience to floods and water quality.