Optimisation of Urban-Rural Nature-Based Solutions for Integrated
Catchment Water Management
Abstract
Urban-rural nature-based solutions (NBS) have co-benefits for water
availability, water quality, and flood management. Searching for optimal
integrated urban-rural NBS planning to maximise these co-benefits is
important for catchment scale water management. This study develops an
integrated urban-rural NBS planning optimisation framework. In this
framework, the CatchWat-SD model is developed to simulate a
multi-catchment integrated water cycle in the Norfolk region, UK. Three
rural (runoff attenuation features, regenerative farming, floodplain)
and two urban (urban green space, constructed wastewater wetlands) NBS
interventions are integrated into the model at a range of implementation
scales. A many-objective optimization problem with seven water
management objectives to account for flow, quality and cost indicators
is formulated, and the NSGAII algorithm is adopted to search for optimal
NBS portfolios. Results show that rural NBS have more significant
impacts across the catchment, which increase with the scale of
implementation. Integrated urban-rural NBS planning can improve water
availability, water quality, and flood management simultaneously, though
trade-offs exist between different objectives. Runoff attenuation
features and floodplains provide the greatest benefits for water
availability. While regenerative farming is most effective for water
quality and flood management, though it decreases water availability by
up to 15% because it retains more water in the soil. Phosphorus levls
are best reduced by expansion of urban green space to decrease loading
on combined sewer systems, though this trades off against water
availability, flood, nitrogen and suspended solids. The proposed
framework enables spatial prioritisation of NBS, which may ultimately
guide multi-stakeholder decision-making.