Urban Floods in Lowlands—Levee Systems, Unplanned Urban Growth and River Restoration Alternative: A Case Study in Brazil

Marcelo Gomes Miguez, Aline Pires Veról, Matheus Martins De Sousa and Osvaldo Moura Rezende
Additional contact information
Marcelo Gomes Miguez: Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa de Engenharia (COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149, CT, bloco I, sala I206, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro 21941-909, Brazil
Aline Pires Veról: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura-Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (PROARQ-FAU), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Pedro Calmon, 550, sala 422, Prédio da Reitoria/FAU, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro 21941-901, Brazil
Matheus Martins De Sousa: Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa de Engenharia (COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149, CT, bloco I, sala I206, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro 21941-909, Brazil
Osvaldo Moura Rezende: Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa de Engenharia (COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149, CT, bloco I, sala I206, Cidade Universitária, Rio de Janeiro 21941-909, Brazil

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 8, 1-30

Abstract: The development of cities has always had a very close relation with water. However, cities directly impact land use patterns and greatly change natural landscapes, aggravating floods. Considering this situation, this paper intends to discuss lowland occupation and city sustainability in what regards urban stormwater management, fluvial space, and river restoration, aiming at minimizing flood risks and improving natural and built environment conditions. River plains tend to be attractive places for a city to grow. From ancient times, levees have been used to protect lowland areas along major watercourses to allow their occupation. However, urban rivers demand space for temporary flood storage. From a systemic point of view, levees along extensive river reaches act as canalization works, limiting river connectivity with flood plains, rising water levels, increasing overtopping risks and transferring floods downstream. Departing from this discussion, four case studies in the Iguaçu-Sarapuí River Basin, a lowland area of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, are used to compose a perspective in which the central point refers to the need of respecting watershed limits and giving space to rivers. Different aspects of low-lying city planning are discussed and analyzed concerning the integration of the built and natural environments.

Keywords: urban growth; urban flood control; lowlands; levee systems; river restoration; sustainable cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/8/11068/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/8/11068/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:8:p:11068-11097:d:54204

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().