A Mapping of Tools for Informing Water Sensitive Urban Design Planning Decisions—Questions, Aspects and Context Sensitivity

Abstract

Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) poses new challenges for decision makers compared with traditional stormwater management, e.g., because WSUD offers a larger selection of measures and because many measures are multifunctional. These challenges have motivated the development of many decision support tools. This review shows that the tools differ in terms of the types of questions they can assist in answering. We identified three main groups: “How Much”-tools, “Where”-tools and “Which”-tools. The “How Much”-tools can further be grouped into tools quantifying hydraulic impacts, hydrologic impacts, water quality impacts, non-flow-related impacts and economic impacts. Additionally, the tools differ in terms of how many aspects of water they address, from those focused only on bio-physical aspects to those attempting to find the best WSUD based on multiple criteria. Finally, we suggest that variability among the tools can partly be explained by variability in local context including conditions such as type of existing stormwater systems, groundwater conditions and legislative frameworks.