Imperial College London

DR ANA MIJIC

Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Reader in Water Systems Integration
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 3796ana.mijic Website

 
 
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Assistant

 

Miss Judith Barritt +44 (0)20 7594 5967

 
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Location

 

310BSkempton BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Publication Type
Year
to

123 results found

Boskovic S, Giambona J, Mijic A, Baldock Det al., 2024, Social and environmental benefits of regenerative design

<jats:p>Cities are major contributors to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, notwithstanding other sources of pollution, conditioning planet health and citizens wellbeing. The increase in urban growth and urbanization results in an expansion of urban hazards - including water scarcity, air pollution and other environmental issues. Therefore, to respond to the need for new urban development, it is necessary to introduce a new systems-based approach able not only to maintain the existing environmental indicators, but to guarantee their improvement.&amp;#160;To address this complexity, in this work we explore Regenerative Design (RD) definition, scale and proprieties to rethink the ecological challenges we face in a holistic and systematic manner.&amp;#160; Regenerative Design approach, in this study, aspires to demonstrate that order to achieve net-positive outcomes and address social and ecological issues, it is necessary to move beyond the only intention of environmental harm mitigation. The regenerative design process leads to design processes that utilize the insights and relationships of ecological systems of the place as the basis for projects in which human actions positively contribute to the self-healing properties of nature. Therefore, an integration of nature-inspired solutions throughout the design process is required.This study evidence that a transformative shift towards regenerative design requires not only a change in way of thinking and practice, but also in worldviews and values. It starts with the awareness the way we approach analysis of a design process might not be regenerative. Therefore, there is need for systems change to tackle root causes of degeneration, where the context and the place-based design decisions are of crucial importance.</jats:p>

Other

Mijic A, Teutschbein C, Finger D, Liu J, Foerster K, Wens M, Bezak N, Palmate S, Nishad S, Krause Set al., 2024, Overview of the Theme 2 of IAHS HELPING: Holistic Solutions for Water Security&amp;#160;

<jats:p>The term "water security" denotes the sustainable availability and access to clean and safe water for diverse purposes, ensuring the well-being of individuals, communities, and ecosystems. Despite numerous proposed solutions from the scientific community to address water security challenges, a genuinely holistic, systems-level approach is still lacking. The research conducted under Theme 2 of the new IAHS HELPING decade is grounded in the premise that holistic solutions for water security necessitate an integrated approach. This involves understanding the potential and challenges associated with mitigation methods for floods, droughts, and water quality/pollution, as well as being aware of the sectorial nexus of problems and solutions. Nature-based solutions (NBS) are also considered for sustainable water management. The theme brings together seven working groups (WGs) focusing on methods and applications for characterising droughts in the Anthropocene, providing near-term water availability forecasts, and conducting water systems analysis using integrated tools and participatory engagement. Additionally, these WGs address interactions between water, energy, health, and ecological systems, with the aim of advancing ecological restoration and the implementation of NBS. This talk will present a high-level overview of the WGs, showcase preliminary findings, and discuss the potential for integrating insights and methods from multiple work streams into a comprehensive framework for water security solutions.</jats:p>

Other

Maes-Prior R, Dobson B, Mijic A, 2024, A flexible modelling framework for model creation based on perceptual understanding in integrated human-water systems

<jats:p>Perceptual and conceptual modelling has been used historically by hydrologists to develop models rooted in a physical reality. As human activity increases and intertwines with the natural world, hydrological systems cannot be treated in isolation, particularly in urbanised areas. We argue that expanding our models and modelling approaches to consider interactions with water infrastructure can help us to identify the dominant processes and interactions within coupled human-water systems (CHWS) and guide our modelling processes towards models that produce results for the right reasons. We develop a three-level perceptual modelling approach that maps CHWS complexity in a systemic way. Perceptual models are representations of a system of interest based on stakeholder&amp;#8217;s understandings and rooted in reality (e.g. visualised as a cross-section of the system with processes mapped on). Conceptual models are representations that break down the perceptual model to a component and state level (e.g. visualised as buckets and flows). From these definitions the framework was created to construct a computational model from an initial understanding of the region of interest. This framework prioritises engagement of different stakeholders at key junctions in the model making process, as well as providing a clear roadmap of modelling decisions. We applied this modelling approach for the Mogden Wastewater Catchment in North West London. The Mogden case study captures the interaction between surface water, groundwater and the sewer network, giving insight into the understudied field of sewer infiltration/exfiltration, highlighting the framework&amp;#8217;s ability to better understand impact and behaviour of complicated flow paths. The case study highlights how this framework allows for the identification of interactions between human activity and the urban water system, producing models which are rooted in reality. The case study further revealed the ben

Other

Peng F, Liu L, Mijic A, 2024, Role of urban wetlands in improving catchment river water quality with implications for management

<jats:p>The theme for World Wetlands Day in 2024 is centred on the symbiotic relationship between wetlands and human wellbeing. The urban wetland, as a nature-based solution, notably intertwines with human activities, distinguishing itself among various wetland types. Examining urban wetlands through the aspect of water quality reveals their ability to purify nitrogen and phosphorus from water sources. However, human activities affect river water quality via various sources and processes within an urban environment, including land surface and wastewater discharge, exhibiting significant complexity. Understanding how urban wetlands interact with these processes and their impacts on water quality is needed. To explore the role of wetlands in integrated urban water quality management, our study enhanced the representation of nutrient processes in wetlands and incorporated it into the whole-water cycle simulation tool &amp;#8211; the Water Systems Integration Modelling framework (WSIMOD). This is done by quantifying the wetland-urban system interactions within subcatchments, between subcatchments, and at the catchment scale. Our study aims to (1) evaluate urban wetland benefits in water quality improvement via statistical analysis; (2) simulate such impacts through integrated modelling; (3) explore the pipe connections of wetlands and their impacts on systems-level water quality improvement to inform design and management. Analysis of observed water quality data reveals that the nitrogen concentration in a catchment influenced by the urban wetlands network is reduced by approximately 18% to 28%, with the phosphorus concentration showing a reduction of about 4% to 11%. At a local scale, within a single subcatchment, the model is demonstrted to capture the water quality dynamics and the observed impacts well by validating against the sampling data. Furthermore, at a broader scale encompassing the entire catchment, the connectivity of urban wetlands through pipes

Other

Srivastava S, Liu L, Wadhwa A, Reghunath G, Budamala V, Dobson B, Kumar Dasika N, Mijic Aet al., 2024, Catchment Classification-Based Comparison of Hydrological Models to Inform Water Systems Analysis

<jats:p>Choosing a suitable model and determining the best calibration method are complex processes. These can be simplified by comparing uncalibrated models and analyzing modeling results based on catchment characteristics. The amalgamation of these two stages forms "informing water systems analysis." This study examines the application of the Water Systems Integrated Modelling framework (WSIMOD), which is a comprehensive water systems model applied previously for catchments in the UK, and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a commonly used hydrological model in India. The comparison is conducted using a catchment classification scheme based on physiography. This approach establishes a connection between the catchment characteristics and the model performances, providing valuable insights for the analysis of water systems. WSIMOD demonstrates superior performance compared to SWAT in its out-of-the-box configuration, particularly when simulating average flows. WSIMOD necessitates a greater amount of data preparation compared to SWAT, but it involves a less complex calibration process. The performance of SWAT is highly dependent on the characteristics of each catchment, necessitating the use of multi-site calibration. WSIMOD's performance is not significantly influenced by catchment characteristics, enabling regions within the same agro-ecological zone to share identical parameter values. The catchment classification analysis indicated that to enhance the accuracy of the SWAT model, it is necessary to select topography, precipitation, and soil parameters for calibration. Additionally, the infiltration rate and residence times of water should be further refined to improve the WSIMOD model. This proposed methodology facilitates and simplifies the processes of model selection and calibration.</jats:p>

Other

Mijic A, Liu L, 2024, An exploratory bottom-up resilience assessment framework for coupled human-water systems

<jats:p>Resilience has been defined as the ability of a system to withstand stressors while preserving its structure and functions. Various resilience assessment frameworks and metrics have been developed for understanding individual water system behaviour. However, in coupled human-water systems, the increased complexity presents new challenges in the application of these frameworks. This exploratory study first conducted a literature review on system performance indicators, failure thresholds, and resilience metrics, across urban water supply, drainage, wastewater, groundwater, and river systems. Challenges are identified in intercomparison between system performance indicators, robustness of thresholds selection, and resilience metrics synthesis as well as their applicability to inform water management. Based on the insights, a bottom-up resilience assessment framework for coupled human-water systems is developed. This framework sets double thresholds to characterise the vulnerable and critical systems state during a disruptive period. Four shape-based resilience metrics are designed and uniformly applied to various performance indicators to facilitate intercomparison between subsystems. The application of the metrics crosses temporal scales, from event-level assessments for understanding system behaviour to annual-level evaluations of system reliability, which are ultimately synthesised at the system level for multi-stakeholder decision-making. The efficacy of this framework is demonstrated through its application with the integrated water system model (WSIMOD) in Luton, UK, serving as a case study. The findings highlight river water quality as the least resilient subsystem that needs prioritised management. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to examine the robustness of results, with subsequent interpretation linking these metrics to specific design variables for enhanced management. This framework can be further applied with stakeholder engagement and mul

Other

Liu L, Bianchi M, Jackson C, Mijic Aet al., 2024, Flux tracking of groundwater via integrated modelling for abstraction management

<jats:p>In systems where surface water and groundwater interact, management of the water resource often involves conflicting objectives between water supply and baseflow maintenance. Balancing such objectives requires understanding of the role of groundwater in integrated water systems to inform the design of an efficient strategy to minimise abstraction impacts. This study first develops a reduced-complexity, processed-based groundwater model within the water systems integration modelling framework (WSIMOD). This model is applied to the Lea catchment, UK, as a case study and evaluated against monitored groundwater level and river flow data. A flux tracking approach is developed to reveal the origins of both river baseflow at a critical assessment point and abstracted groundwater across the systems. The insights obtained are used to design two strategies for groundwater abstraction reduction. Results show that the model has good performance in simulating the groundwater and river flow dynamics. Three aquifer bodies that contribute the most to the river baseflow in the dry season at the assessment point are identified; contributions being 17%, 15%, and 5%. The spatial distribution of abstracted groundwater originating from these aquifer bodies is illustrated. Compared to the default equal-ratio reduction, the strategy prioritising abstraction reduction in these three aquifer bodies increases a similar amount of baseflow (13%) by reducing much less abstraction (23%). The other strategy, which further decreases abstraction in the adjacent aquifer bodies, increases more baseflow (16%) with a similar abstraction reduction (30%). Both strategies can more efficiently improve the baseflow. The flux tracking approach can be further implemented to trace water from other origins, including runoff, stormwater, and wastewater, to enable coordinated management for better systems-level performance.</jats:p>

Other

Zhang Z, Rico Carranza E, Mijic A, 2024, Novel Use of Integrated Water System Model for Decision-Making Processes at Different Scales

<jats:p>The increasing population and new urban developments have posed challenges to urban water management, such as domestic water scarcity and deteriorated water quality. &amp;#160;Meanwhile, the existing development planning frameworks fail to facilitate an effective approach to enhance an efficient and sustainable urban water design. They tend to isolate groups and evidence by relying on different independent models. The state-of-the-art Water Systems Integrated Modelling framework (WSIMOD), which simulates the terrestrial water cycle integrally including physical and human processes, has been developed to provide holistic and integrated evidence to help with decision-making processes. The WSIMOD model has been previously implemented at the river sub-catchment resolution, while a complete decision-making process usually involves different groups, such as city authorities, water companies and environmental regulators, with multiple objectives at multiple spatial resolutions. In the current work, we propose the novel use of the model for multi-resolution simulations (local, borough and river sub-catchment), and aim to help multi-stakeholders and decision-makers understand potential challenges to achieving multi-objectives in a coordinated way. We will also explore the effectiveness of measures to offset urban water issues induced by new developments in the current and future scenarios. Our work can provide insight into efficient and sustainable urban water management strategies for multi-stakeholder planning and future adaptation under uncertainty.</jats:p>

Other

Mijic A, Liu L, OKeeffe J, Dobson B, Chun KPet al., 2024, A meta-model of socio-hydrological phenomena for sustainable water management, Nature Sustainability, Vol: 7, Pages: 7-14, ISSN: 2398-9629

Overemphasizing technological solutions in water management without considering the broader systems perspective can result in unintended consequences. For example, infrastructure interventions for drought adaptation may inadvertently increase flood risk, illustrating a socio-hydrological phenomenon. Here we propose a systems meta-model that reveals the complex mechanisms and feedback loops underlying the critical human–water interactions. We show that the unintended outcomes of water management decisions result from the lack of integration and coordination of the feedback loops. The insights highlight the importance of considering environmental capacity in water management, as well as the necessity for integrated assessment and coordinated solutions for long-term sustainability.

Journal article

Mijic A, 2023, Unlocking benefits of crop switching in India, nature water, Vol: 1, Pages: 833-834, ISSN: 2731-6084

Crop switching optimization within the context of the Indo-Gangetic Plain provides compelling evidence that this approach yields significant benefits in terms of increasing calorie production and profits for farmers whilst minimizing water and energy use.

Journal article

Fan PY, Chun KP, Tan ML, Mah DN-Y, Mijic A, Strickert G, Yetemen Oet al., 2023, The spatial configuration of local climate zones reveals effects on wayfinding in human walking, PLoS One, Vol: 18, ISSN: 1932-6203

The importance of easy wayfinding in complex urban settings has been recognized in spatial planning. Empirical measurement and explicit representation of wayfinding, however, have been limited in deciding spatial configurations. Our study proposed and tested an approach to improving wayfinding by incorporating spatial analysis of urban forms in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area in China. Wayfinding was measured by an indicator of intelligibility using spatial design network analysis. Urban spatial configurations were quantified using landscape metrics to describe the spatial layouts of local climate zones (LCZs) as standardized urban forms. The statistical analysis demonstrated the significant associations between urban spatial configurations and wayfinding. These findings suggested, to improve wayfinding, 1) dispersing LCZ 1 (compact high-rise) and LCZ 2 (compact mid-rise) and 2) agglomerating LCZ 3 (compact low-rise), LCZ 5 (open mid-rise), LCZ 6 (open low-rise), and LCZ 9 (sparsely built). To our knowledge, this study is the first to incorporate the LCZ classification system into the wayfinding field, clearly providing empirically-supported solutions for dispersing and agglomerating spatial configurations. Our findings also provide insights for human-centered spatial planning by spatial co-development at local, urban, and regional levels.

Journal article

Liu L, Dobson B, Mijic A, 2023, Water quality management at a critical checkpoint by coordinated multi-catchment urban-rural load allocation, JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Vol: 340, ISSN: 0301-4797

Journal article

Fan PY, Chun KP, Mijic A, Tan ML, Zhai W, Yetemen Oet al., 2023, Identifying the Impacts of Land-Use Spatial Patterns on Street-Network Accessibility Using Geospatial Methods, GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS, ISSN: 0016-7363

Journal article

Kirkpatrick L, Adjiman C, ApSimon H, Berry A, de Nazelle A, Mijic A, Myers R, Woodward G, Workman Met al., 2023, Systems thinking for the transition to zero pollution, Systems thinking for the transition to zero pollution, www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham, Publisher: Grantham Institute, 40

Systems approaches are vital for coordinating decision-making in the face of complex issues because they provide the whole picture view needed to avoid negative unintended consequences and to generate genuine benefits. This paper explains how systems thinking can be used to address environmental pollution and support decision-makers in finding solutions.

Report

Rico Carranza E, Mijic A, Whyte J, 2023, Co-Creating Digital Twins for Planning of Water Resources and Housing Development

<jats:p>The potential to deliver better, more efficient and sustainable cities has motivated recent research on Digital Twins (DTs) that seek to support planning decisions by displaying analytical evidence to inform collaborative design actions. Prior research identifies different types of DT tools and gives recommendations for their use, but it has not been grounded in engaged research that co-designs DTs with planning users from the context description and problem formulation stage. We report on a research project to co-create DTs with local government planners to visualize interactions between water resources and housing development. We describe co-creating two different DTs starting from the context and problem for water management and assess the steps against these three categories. While engaging with the field we built on prior studies to identify a set of categories relevant to co-creating and assessing DTs: context, governance, spatial and technical definition.&amp;#160; By recording the steps of the DT design process, and contrasting the results with the theoretical proposals, we develop a three-step framework for the co-creation of DTs. This step-by-step framework, illustrated by examples, provides a contribution to the literature on the co-design of DT, and we conclude by discussing implications for practitioners and areas for further research.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;</jats:p>

Other

Boskovic S, Puchol-Salort P, Mijic A, Maksimovic Cet al., 2023, Systemic design approach for climate change adaptation and enhancement of public health and wellbeing

<jats:p>Climate change-related phenomena are putting an enormous strain on cities&amp;#8217; infrastructure, human livelihoods, public health and citizens well-being. This, together with the increase in urban growth and urbanization, results in an expansion of urban hazards - including water scarcity, disease transmission and consequent social issues.To address this complexity in an urban design context we introduce a Systemic Design (SyD) framework for Multifunctional Nature-based Solutions (NBS) to rethink and contribute to the planet&amp;#8217;s health and people&amp;#8217;s quality of life. The SyD approach focuses on context knowledge creation (environmental, climatic, social&amp;#8230;) that includes perspectives from the point of view of multiple stakeholders, maps its key features, and analyses alternatives for exploiting different design options. Exploratory or suitability modelling supports all these steps.The examples here presented are part of the multidisciplinary project euPOLIS focused on climate change adaptation and on enhancement of public health and citizen&amp;#8217;s well-being through the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS). Although diversity of the size and the scale of presented case studies, the systematic baseline analysis have revealed that there are several shared conditions, such as an immediate need for improvement of existing green spaces, mitigation of direct and indirect UHI effect and refinement of maintenance systems.A mapping of the local features, and variety of specific spatial and social conditions in public spaces studied in euPOLIS&amp;#8217;s Cities (Belgrade, Gladsaxe, Lodz and Pireas) gives synthetic prospects to better understand the potential effectiveness of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) solutions (design options) in relation to their wider ecosystem and citizens&amp;#8217; concerns.&amp;#160; This leads to a systematic assessment of possible future scenarios of differ

Other

Liu L, Dobson B, Mijic A, 2023, Optimisation of Urban-Rural Nature-Based Solutions for Integrated Catchment Water Management

<jats:p>Nature-based solutions (NBS) have co-benefits for water availability, water quality, and flood management. However, searching for optimal integrated urban-rural NBS planning to maximise co-benefits at a catchment scale is still limited by fragmented evaluation. This study develops an integrated urban-rural NBS planning optimisation framework based on the CatchWat-SD model, which is developed to simulate a multi-catchment integrated water cycle in the Norfolk region, UK. Three rural (runoff attenuation features, regenerative farming, floodplain) and two urban (urban green space, constructed wastewater wetlands) NBS interventions are integrated into the model at a range of implementation scales. A many-objective optimization problem with seven water management objectives to account for flow, quality and cost indicators is formulated, and the NSGAII algorithm is adopted to search for optimal NBS portfolios. Results show that rural NBS have more significant impacts across the catchment, which increase with the scale of implementation. Integrated urban-rural NBS planning can improve water availability, water quality, and flood management simultaneously, though trade-offs exist between different objectives. Runoff attenuation features and floodplains provide the greatest benefits for water availability. Regenerative farming is most effective for water quality and flood management, though it decreases water availability by up to 15% because it retains more water in the soil. Phosphorus levels are best reduced by expansion of urban green space to decrease loading on combined sewer systems, though this trades off against water availability, flood, nitrogen and suspended solids. The proposed framework enables spatial prioritisation of NBS, which may ultimately guide multi-stakeholder decision-making, bridging the urban-rural divide in catchment water management.&amp;#160;</jats:p>

Other

Puchol-Salort P, Boskovic S, Dobson B, Krivtsov V, Rico-Carranza E, van Reeuwijk M, Whyte J, Mijic Aet al., 2023, Integrated Urban Planning Decision-Making Process Towards Water Neutral Solutions

<jats:p>Urban water security levels will be threatened during the next few years due to new development pressures combined with the climate emergency and increasing population growth in cities. In the UK, London&amp;#8217;s planning authorities have a target of more than half a million households for the next 10 years. This new housing will increase the current impacts on urban consumer demand, flood risk, and river water quality indicators. In our previous work, we developed a new concept for urban Water Neutrality (WN) inside an integrated urban planning sustainability framework called CityPlan to deal with water stress and urban complexity issues. This framework integrates the UK&amp;#8217;s planning application process with systemic design solutions and evaluation, all being spatially represented in a GIS platform. With the new digital era, there is a constantly increasing number of spatial datasets that are openly available from different sources, but most of them are disaggregated and difficult to understand by key urban stakeholders such as Local Planning Authorities, housing developers, and water companies. Moreover, there are several Multi-Criteria Decision Support Tools (MCDST) that address water management challenges in the literature; but there is still little evidence of one that evaluates the impacts and opportunities to allocate water neutral urban developments.In this work, we expand the CityPlan framework and present an innovative fully data-driven approach to test WN indicators at different urban scales. WaNetDST integrates GIS spatial data with a series of rules for development impact and offset opportunity based on the current properties of the urban land. This integration is linked to a new scoring system from expert advice that maps strategic areas for water neutral interventions and links the most impactful zones with others more prone to be intervened. The tool connects different urban scales with a series of case study areas: f

Other

Mijic A, Liu L, Dobson B, 2023, Water Systems Integrated Modelling framework (WSIMOD): A Python package for simulating human-impacted water quality and quantity

<jats:p>The water cycle is highly interconnected; water fluxes in one part depend on physical and human processes throughout. For example, rivers are a water supply, a receiver of wastewater, and an aggregate of many hydrological, biological, and chemical processes. Thus, simulations of the water cycle that have highly constrained boundaries may miss key interactions that create unanticipated impacts or unexpected opportunities. Integrated environmental models aim to resolve the issue of boundary conditions, however they have some key limitations, and we find a significant need for a parsimonious, self-contained suite that is accessible and easy to setup. With this in mind, we have developed the WSIMOD &amp;#8211; a Python package that allows for the representation of the water system&amp;#8217;s demands and impacts of multiple sectors and actors&amp;#8217; decisions within a single tool, which is considered beneficial to increasing a shared understanding of system performance and for more collaborative and coherent decisions on integrated water resources, water quality and flood management. The WSIMOD is a self-contained software package that includes modelled representations of key physical and infrastructure elements of the water cycle (urban and rural), with each type of modelled element generically described as a component. Components are written in such a way that any component can interact with any other component. This enables a flexible representation of a water system that is needed to accommodate the wide variety of different built/natural infrastructure configurations and scales. We will showcase how the WSIMOD tool has been developed and successfully tested through a range of applications in the UK, including integrated analysis of urban water systems, catchment water management and urban water neutrality. &amp;#160;</jats:p>

Other

Peng F, Liu L, Gao Y, Krivtsov V, Dobson B, Mijic Aet al., 2023, Evaluating the impact of urban wetlands as nature-based solutions at the catchment scale

<jats:p>During COP14 in 2022, Ramsar Convention commended 25 cities around the world for their efforts to protect urban wetlands. With the development of cities and the increase in land demand, the trend is to reduce the number of open blue spaces. Yet when preserved and sustainably used, urban nature-based solutions in the form of constructed wetlands could provide water management benefits including water quality regulation and flood mitigation. However, these water management benefits have rarely been evaluated at a catchment scale, and the mechanisms behind them are not fully understood, both of which hinder effective integrated constructed wetlands planning. We aim to explore the impact of wetland changes on water quality and quantity at the catchment scale. This study firstly evaluates the benefits by analysing the monitoring water quantity and quality datasets before and after the wetland construction in Enfield catchment, London. To understand the mechanisms behind the benefits, we build a Water Systems Integration Modelling framework (WSIMOD) to simulate the catchment-scale water cycle. This model is validated against monitoring river flow and water quality data. The constructed wetlands are then conceptualised and integrated into the WSIMOD, and their interactions with the catchment water cycle are simulated. Scenarios are constructed to analyse the impacts of different configurations and sizes of the constructed wetlands on the catchment water cycle. The results show that urban wetlands play a role in flood detention and water quality purification of watershed water resources at the catchment scale. Scattered small wetlands can more effectively reduce the impact of a flood under the same total wetland area. The results provide useful insights into the planning of constructed wetlands for maximising the water management benefits at a catchment scale. Future studies could focus on representing the interaction between the quantity and quality of water

Other

Liu L, Dobson B, Mijic A, 2023, Optimisation of urban-rural nature-based solutions for integrated catchment water management, JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Vol: 329, ISSN: 0301-4797

Journal article

Zhang Z, Dobson B, Moustakis Y, Meili N, Mijic A, Butler A, Athanasios Pet al., 2023, Assessing the co-benefits of urban greening coupled with rainwater harvesting management under current and future climates across USA cities, Environmental Research Letters, Vol: 18, Pages: 1-11, ISSN: 1748-9326

Globally, urban areas face multiple challenges owing to climate change. Urban greening (UG) is an excellent option for mitigating flood risk and excess urban heat. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems can cope with plant irrigation needs and urban water management. In this study, we investigated how UG and RWH work together to mitigate environmental risks. By incorporating a new RWH module into the urban ecohydrological model Urban Tethys-Chloris (UT&C), we tested different uses of intervention approaches for 28 cities in the USA, spanning a variety of climates, population densities, and urban landscapes. UT&C was forced by the latest generation convection-permitting climate model simulations of the current (2001–2011) and end-of-century (RCP8.5) climate. Our results showed that neither UG nor RWH, through the irrigation of vegetation, could significantly contribute to mitigating the expected strong increase in 2 m urban canyon temperatures under a high-emission scenario. RWH alone can sufficiently offset the intensifying surface flood risk, effectively enhance water saving, and support UG to sustain a strong urban carbon sink, especially in dry regions. However, in these regions, RWH cannot fully fulfill plant water needs, and additional measures to meet irrigation demand are required to maximize carbon sequestration by urban vegetation.

Journal article

Tan Z, Berry A, Charalambides M, Mijic A, Pearse W, Porter A, Ryan M, Shorten R, Stettler M, Tetley T, Wright S, Masen Met al., 2023, Tyre wear particles are toxic for us and the environment

This briefing paper discusses the current knowledge on the effects of tyre wear particles on our health and environment, highlights the need for an ambitious research agenda to build further understanding of the impacts on people and nature and develop solutions, and includes recommendations for policymakers.

Report

Muhandes S, Dobson B, Mijic A, 2023, A method for adjusting design storm peakedness to reduce bias in hydraulic simulations, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Water Management, Vol: 176, Pages: 1-13, ISSN: 1741-7589

In the UK, decision makers use hydraulic model outputs to inform funding, connection consent, adoption of new drainage networks and planning application decisions. Current practice requires the application of design storms to calculate sewer catchment performance metrics such as flood volume, discharge rate and flood count. With flooding incidents occurring more frequently than their designs specify, hydraulic modelling outputs required by practice are questionable. The main focus of this paper is the peakedness factor (ratio of maximum to average rainfall intensity) of design storms, adjudging that this is a key contributor to model bias. Hydraulic models of two UK sewer catchments were simulated under historical storms, design storms and design storms with modified peakedness to test bias in modelling outputs and the effectiveness of peakedness modification in reducing bias. Sustainable drainage systems (Suds) were implemented at catchment scale and the betterment achieved in the modelling outputs was tested. The proposed design storm modification reduced the bias that occurs when driving hydraulic models using design storms in comparison with historical storms. It is concluded that Suds benefits are underestimated when using design rainfall because the synthetic rainfall shape prevents infiltration. Thus, Suds interventions cannot accurately be evaluated by design storms, modified or otherwise.

Journal article

Cardin MA, Mijic A, Whyte J, 2023, Data-driven infrastructure systems design for uncertainty, sustainability, and resilience, Pages: 2565-2572

There are currently many discussions around the need to design infrastructure systems that are more resilient and sustainable in the future, especially considering growing uncertainties from climate change, pandemics, geopolitical conflicts, and cyber/physical terrorism. It is widely recognized that infrastructure systems provide vital functions for society e.g., power generation, transportation, water management, and that they face much uncertainty and variability over their operating lifetime (+20 years). Yet, standard engineering methods provide limited guidance on how to best design such systems to make them more adaptable, evolvable, and reconfigurable to deal with future uncertainty and risks. The field of Flexibility in Engineering Design that emerged from the theory of real options provide systematic and innovative computational tools, algorithms, and digital processes to help designers and engineers better account for uncertainty and risks in early conceptual design activities. This paper provides an overview of the latest developments and future directions in this rapidly growing field. It discusses how flexibility provides the foundations for a unifying conceptual framework to create infrastructure systems that are both more sustainable and resilient. It introduces cutting edge techniques to support the design process based on principles from stochastic programming, robust optimization, deep reinforcement learning, and simulation games, including examples in energy and transportation systems.

Conference paper

Fan PY, Chun KP, Mijic A, Tan ML, Yetemen Oet al., 2022, Integrating the Budyko framework with the emerging hot spot analysis in local land use planning for regulating surface evapotranspiration ratio, JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Vol: 316, ISSN: 0301-4797

Journal article

Dobson B, Barry S, Maes-Prior R, Mijic A, Woodward G, Pearse WDet al., 2022, Predicting catchment suitability for biodiversity at national scales, WATER RESEARCH, Vol: 221, ISSN: 0043-1354

Journal article

Puchol-Salort P, Boskovic S, Dobson B, van Reeuwijk M, Mijic Aet al., 2022, Water neutrality framework for systemic design of new urban developments, Water Research, Vol: 219, Pages: 1-13, ISSN: 0043-1354

The climate emergency and population growth threaten urban water security in cities worldwide. Growth, urbanisation, and changes to way of life have increased housing demand, requiring cities such as London to increase their housing stock by more than 15% over the next 10 years. These new urban developments will increase water demand, urban flood risk, and river water pollution levels; therefore, an integrated systems-based approach to development and water management is needed. Water Neutrality (WN) has emerged as a concept to frame the concerns about escalating water stresses in cities. We frame WN as a planning process for new urban developments that aims to minimise impacts on urban water security and offset any remaining stresses by retrofitting existing housing stock. In this work, we present a novel systemic design framework for future urban planning called CityPlan-Water, which guides how WN might be achieved to tackle current and future water pressures at a city scale. CityPlan-Water integrates spatial data with an integrated urban water management model, enabling urban design at a systems level and systematic assessment of future scenarios. We define a Water Neutrality Index that captures how successful a given urban planning scenario is in achieving WN and how multiple interventions could be combined at a city scale to improve WN. Results from CityPlan-Water suggest that it will be necessary to retrofit almost the same number of existing homes with WN design options to completely offset the impact imposed by proposed new developments. Combining options such as water efficient appliances, water reuse systems, and social awareness campaigns can offset the impact of new development on water demand by 70%, while to neutralise potential flood risk and water pollution at a city scale, interventions such as rainwater harvesting and Blue Green Infrastructure need to be added both in new urban developments and 432,000 existing London households. We see CityPlan-Wa

Journal article

Zhang Z, Paschalis A, Mijic A, Meili N, Manoli G, Van Reeuwijk M, Fatichi Set al., 2022, A mechanistic assessment of urban heat island intensities and drivers across climates, Urban Climate, Vol: 44, Pages: 1-18, ISSN: 2212-0955

The urban heat island effect (UHI) has been widely observed globally, causing climate,health, and energy impacts in cities. The UHI intensities have been found to largelydepend on background climate and the properties of the urban fabric. Yet, a completemechanistic understanding of how UHIs develop at a global scale is still missing. Usingan urban ecohydrological and land-surface model (urban Tethys-Chloris) incombination with multi-source remote sensing data, we performed simulations for 49large urban clusters across the Northern Hemisphere in 2009-2019 and analysed howsurface and canopy air UHIs (SUHI and CUHI, respectively) develop during day andnight. Biophysical drivers triggering the development of SUHIs and CUHIs have similardependencies on background climate, but with different magnitudes. In humid regionsdaytime UHIs can be largely explained by the urban-rural difference inevapotranspiration, whereas heat convection and conduction are important in aridareas. Plant irrigation can largely promote daytime urban evapotranspiration only inarid and semi-arid climates. During night, heat conduction from the urban fabric to theenvironment creates large UHIs mostly in warm arid regions. Overall, this studypresents a mechanistic quantification of how UHIs develop worldwide and proposesviable solutions for sustainable climate-sensitive mitigation strategies.

Journal article

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