Page 70 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

Water Sensitivity In The Context Of
Climate-Friendly Urbanism

and nature will not yield effective results. We can see its example in the recent
reports on the mucilage problem in Marmara Sea, sudden overflows, urban
heat islands. Moreover, it has been clearly understood that with the pandemic,
indoor spaces are unhealthy, people will not be enough for survival, and the
open and green areas are indispensable parts of our lives.
With this approach, certain models and applications such as water-sensitive
cities, sustainable urban drainage systems, development with minimal effects,
sponge cities, and permeable cities around the world should be common
practice in our country as well. To improve urban environment in terms of
rainwater, it is possible to collect, filter and reuse rainwater from all kinds of
surfaces through an approach that “imitates ecosystems”, and to reduce the
urban heat island effect in green areas through rainwater harvest projects. In
this approach, the main principle is to take rainwater swales with vegetation
and wetlands in order to regulate the flow pace from the moment the rainwater
drops on the earth to the time it reaches lakes and seas.
The aim here is to prevent the sudden access of water to the concrete
stream corridors built to transport the water, and even improving concrete
stream corridors further to equip them with higher ecosystem services. Our
cities should now host more examples of living and shaping living spaces with
water. When this happens, there will not only be a more ecological approach,
but also more economical and effective solutions. A case in point is a study
carried out in New York. The study revealed that as New York maintained
rainwater management through gray infrastructure, the upgrades that the city
had to make in 2010 required a 6.8-billion-dollar investment. However, it has
been observed that an improvement made through the combination of gray
and green strategies reduces this cost by 1.5 billion dollars.
Then, what principles should be adopted while integrating this obviously
sustainable system into our cities and reforming our approach?
The natural areas and permeable surfaces should be kept as they are as
much as possible.
The pressure of urban development on hydrology should be reduced.
During this process, a network that supports the natural water cycle of the city
needs to be established.
The management of water in close proximity to the area will not only
decrease the burden on the infrastructure, but also allow the green areas that
will provide water cycle to perform their relevant functions.

Year 1 / Issue 2 / July 2022 56