Conference Agenda

Urbanization and climate change have exacerbated many urban challenges such as flooding, urban heat islands and others. Nature-based solutions (NBS) have been proposed as nature-inspired and cost-effective solutions that provide environmental, social, and economic benefits while tackling urban challenges. This study aims to identify all possible benefits associated with NBS for stormwater management. A methodology for optimizing NBS design has been created, emphasizing local conditions and desired benefits. Multi-objective optimization using NSGA-II is employed to derive the Pareto front solution set of NBS strategies. The methodology was applied to a case study in Tivoli Park, Ljubljana, Slovenia, with different land-use types and frequent flooding problems. The hydrology-hydraulic model was built in SWMM, which was calibrated using the monitored flow. The NSGA-II algorithm takes new values for the areas of the NBS units and compares the hydrological response of the catchment with the baseline model simulation. The optimized results demonstrate that NBS strategies are effective for flood reduction, peak flow control, pollutant reduction, water reuse, infiltration increase, evaporation increase, and green space increase. This research provides a deeper understanding and explanation of the relationship between trade-offs and NBS strategies.