A report summarising the findings of a three-year UK project to develop strategies for creating blue-green cities has been released.

The Blue-Green Cities Research Project began in February 2013 and was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It brought together academics specialising in flood inundation modelling, computation fluid dynamics, sediment and debris processes, river restoration and habitats, urban drainage infrastructure, environmental economics, uncertainty, flood risk management, and stakeholder engagement.

The report summarises the key outputs of the various work packages of the project, with more detailed information available on the project website. The project included, for example, development of protocols to help practitioners evaluate the multiple benefits of blue-green infrastructure. This is complemented by an ArcGIS 10.X-based multiple benefits evaluation toolbox.

Technical areas included working on inundation modelling, to develop a hydrodynamic model to better represent urban areas, couple surface and storm sewer flows, and represent blue-green infrastructure such as blue-green roofs and water butts. Another work package evaluated the influences of sustainable urban drainage systems on water flow and sediment dynamics, using case studes in the UK and the US.

Other aspects included establishing a ‘learning alliance’ to bring together stakeholders, and investigating the impact that the perception and understanding people have of blue-green infrastructure has on their support.

For more information, and to download the report ‘Delivering and evaluating multiple flood risk benefits in blue-greeen cities – key project outputs’, visit www.bluegreencities.ac.uk