Strategies to overcome barriers and to effectively achieve sustainable urban stormwater management: A review

Abstract

Sustainable urban stormwater management (SUSM) is essential to urban sustainability. However, barriers to adopting it are observed even in places where SUSM is more widespread. Recent studies have evaluated strategies for overcoming some types of barriers. However, any study has systematically analyzed the strategies available for overcoming the most common barriers, contributing to widely adopting SUSM. Thus, this article aimed to provide a literature review on these strategies. Sixty-six documents were evaluated, resulting in eight solution strategies, detailed by 81 implementation measures, which were critically analyzed. The interrelationships among the solution strategies and their applicability to overcome the SUSM-related barriers were evaluated. This analysis showed that the solution strategies are interdependent, so it would be inefficient to adopt the strategies in isolation. On the other hand, adopting a strategy can help overcome several barriers, also enhancing other strategies, and consequently contributing to the global scenario of effective SUSM adoption. The availability of this systematized information helps break through common barriers and optimizing efforts to adopt SUSM where it is incipient.