WATER RESILIENT DESIGN
A design approach for developing water-sensitive built environments with nature-based tools

Cities grow at an unprecedented pace, which does not necessarily bring much attention to water management in the urban fabric. Water-insensitive urban development causes water scarcity and disrupts the natural water cycle, eventually generating harmful environments for all living things.

Nature-based solutions help us tackle water-related problems and harvest rainwater while simultaneously improving the well-being of the habitants in various ways. Numerous nature-based solutions are developed and applied around the world. However, their integration into the city at the street-scale differs based on the context.

Countries create measures to maximize the effectiveness of rainwater harvesting in their urban development plans. Herein, this research aims to develop an early design approach that can be used to integrate nature-based water management solutions at the street-scale to frame a background for water-sensitive urban development in our country. It intends to assess different water management scenarios and their impact on the system's efficiency.

Focusing on an urban plot in Tunus Street (Ankara), water runoff and outdoor thermal comfort have been analyzed and improved. Following the obtained data, the research suggests a design approach for the selected plot based on a comparative study that focuses on the environmental performance of the existing condition and the proposed method.
 
Keywords: water management, design approach, nature-based solutions, street-scale.