What is water design: how to design by studying local water cycles
It is the so-called urban planning approach based on water design, which is based on a strategic use of local water cycles: for example, the international giant Arup which has a specialized department on this type of design.
Analyzing through Artificial Intelligence 8 cities - Auckland, London, Mumbai, Nairobi, New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney - Arup measured their capacity to absorb water, evaluating the types of soil, how much percentage covered by 'grey infrastructure' such as concrete, sidewalks and buildings and as much as 'blue and green infrastructure' including grass, trees, ponds and lakes.
Auckland, New Zealand leads the way with 35% green area largely due to its stormwater systems, many golf courses, green parks and good sized residential gardens. In last place is London, at 22%, mainly due to high levels of concrete and poor soil absorbency.
"Cities cannot continue to be concrete jungles," explains Mark Fletcher of Arup. "To thrive, they must work in harmony with nature. They need to quickly learn how to implement nature-based solutions that can bring much broader benefits than traditional gray infrastructure engineering and contribute positively to biodiversity and carbon reduction."