Open Collections

Ishaq, Sadia

University of British Columbia

Low Impact Developments (LIDs) are becoming increasingly popular for their benefits to sustainable and cost-effective stormwater management. LIDs include rain gardens, water ponds, and other nature-based infrastructures. However, both stormwater and LIDs contain microbial pathogens sourced from animal waste because these infrastructures are home to many animals and insects. The widespread use of LIDs is likely to increase human exposure to pathogens and the risk of infection, potentially leading to unexpected disease outbreaks in urban communities. The evaluation of LIDs entails the complexity of stormwater regulations, public health risks, environmental performance, and cost. Currently, an assessment of LIDs that confirms their environmental performance and ability to meet public health targets is not feasible. Therefore, an advanced decision-making framework is required to support risk-based planning of LIDs prior to their installation in urban communities. This research aims to develop an integrated decision-making framework that facilitates the evaluation of LIDs by considering their microbial risks, environmental performance, and cost. A four-step research approach was adopted to achieve this goal. First, I completed a comparative analysis of Canadian stormwater regulations and guidelines, identifying the use of LIDs in ten provinces. In the second step, I integrated Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) and predictive modeling to evaluate the public health risks during the planning phase of LIDs. In the third step, I employed the life cycle impact assessment and life cycle cost analysis and later compared the environmental performance and cost of various LIDs. Lastly, I applied Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method to combine public health risks, environmental performance, and life cycle cost of LIDs. The findings indicate that the weightage of these criteria influences the ranking of LIDs. Wetland is the best LID in terms of public health and economic cost, whereas box planter has become a top priority in terms of environmental performance. The developed framework represents an important step toward addressing microbial risks, environmental performance, and the cost of LIDs in an integrated fashion. The proposed framework offers a unique opportunity to prioritize competing interests and guide actions that ensure well-being and sustainable development. Overall, this framework is valuable for contributing to the UN's 2030 Agenda goals, particularly SDGs 3 and 13.

Text

2023-10-31

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83074

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/