文章基本信息

标题：Water and the city: risk, resilience and planning for a sustainable future
其他标题：by Iain White, Abingdon, Routledge, 220 pp., 2010, £29.99 (paperback) and £95.00 (hardback), ISBN 0-203-84831-4
本地全文：下载
作者：Sarah Bell
期刊名称：International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
印刷版ISSN：1946-3138
出版年度：2011
卷号：3
期号：1
页码：134-136
DOI：10.1080/19463138.2011.583531
语种：English
出版社：Taylor & Francis Group
摘要：Urban water infrastructure is designed to provide protection from waterborne disease and hydrological stability for urban citizens to be able to maintain everyday life despite daily and seasonal rainfall variation. Since the emergence of modern forms of urban governance and planning in the nineteenth century, controlling the flow of water through cities has largely been viewed as a technical problem to be solved by professional engineers, who account for hydrological variability in designing and managing water infrastructure. Reservoirs are built to store water for distribution during dry months. Drains are sized for high flow rates to quickly remove water from streets and buildings during storm events. Flood defences are constructed to protect buildings and other assets from water levels which can be anticipated to occur with known probability. Risks associated with the unlikely failure of these systems or extreme events that fall outside their operating conditions have been covered by the insurance industry, providing financial protection to enable citizens and businesses to recover from disasters. Despite its overall success, this approach to managing water in cities is now reaching its limits. Burgeoning urban populations and climate change are increasing the complexity of water management such that it is no longer a technically tractable problem, requiring greater attention from urban planners, designers, politicians and citizens.