Urban Water Systems & Floods III

Book excerpt: Flooding is a global phenomenon that claims numerous lives worldwide each year. Apart from the physical damage to buildings, contents and loss of life, which are the most obvious, impacts of floods upon households and other more indirect losses are often overlooked. These indirect and intangible impacts are generally associated with disruption to normal life and longer-term health issues. Flooding represents a major barrier to the alleviation of poverty in many parts of the developing world, where vulnerable communities are often exposed to sudden and life-threatening events. As our cities continue to expand, their urban infrastructures need to be re-evaluated and adapted to new requirements related to the increase in population and the growing areas under urbanization. Topics such as contamination and pollution discharges in urban water bodies, as well as the monitoring of water recycling systems are currently receiving a great deal of attention from researchers and professional engineers working in the water industry. The papers contained in this volume cover these problems and deals with two main urban water topics: water supply networks and urban drainage. Originating from the 7th International Conference on Flood and Urban Water Management, the included research works include innovative solutions that can help bring about multiple benefits toward achieving integrated flood risk and urban water management strategies and policy.