
Peter Marcus BachEastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences · Environmental and Process Engineering (UMTEC)
Peter Marcus Bach
BE (Civil), PhD
About
78
Publications
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Introduction
Interdisciplinary researcher specialized in urban nature-based solutions or Blue-Green Infrastructures and integrated modelling. Working on planning multi-functional systems to deliver ecosystem services. Also passionate about making research actionable in practice through applied research, development of planning-support tools and outreach activities.
Checkout my website www.petermbach.com or my YouTube Channel for more details about my work including my recently launched podcast!
Publications
Publications (78)
Current Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) models are either purely technical or overly simplified, lacking consideration of urban planning and stakeholder preferences to adequately support stakeholders. We developed the Urban Biophysical Environments and Technologies Simulator (UrbanBEATS), which integrates stormwater management with urban planni...
In many parts of the world, small towns are experiencing high levels of population growth and development. However, there is little understanding of how urban growth in these regional towns will impact urban runoff. We used the case study of Wangaratta, located in South-East Australia, between 2006 and 2016, to investigate land cover changes and th...
Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) help in stormwater management by reducing runoff volume, increasing runoff concentration time and thereby improving the drainage system capacity. This study investigated the potential and cost-effectiveness of SuDS in reducing combined sewer overflows (CSOs). We simulated the performance of four SuDS techni...
Increasing urbanization degrades quantity, quality, and the functionality of spatial cohesion of natural areas essential to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning worldwide. The uncontrolled pace of building activity and the erosion of blue (i.e., aquatic) and green (i.e., terrestrial) landscape elements threaten existing habitat ranges and movabil...
Reflected in the growing body of literature, urban heat mitigation is increasingly relevant as cities experience extreme heat, exacerbated by climate change and rapid urbanisation. Most studies focus on urban–rural temperature differences, known as the Urban Heat Island, which does not provide insight into urban heat dynamics. Here, we synthesise c...
Blau-grüne Infrastrukturen im Rahmen von Schwammstäd-ten gewinnen an Bedeutung, u. a. weil sie vielfältige Ökosystemleistungen anbieten. Dennoch ist die praktische Umsetzung noch nicht breit etabliert und es bestehen Herausforderungen hinsichtlich der Akzeptanz. Erkennt-nisse zur Wirksamkeit und betriebliche Erfahrung sollen mit dem entwickel-ten g...
Problems caused by urban heat have prompted the exploration of urban greenery for heat mitigation. Various numerical models can simulate related processes, but their use as support-tools to urban planners remains underexplored, particularly at the city-scale. This study investigates the spatial relationships between urban heat, urban form and urban...
Urbanization alters land surface properties in absorbing, reflecting and emitting radiation as well as infiltrating, evaporating and storing water. This consequently modifies surface energy and water fluxes and, thus, urban climates. Weak synoptic flow, clear sky conditions and higher surface temperatures in cities compared to their rural surroundi...
Nature-based solutions (NBS) harness ecosystem services for urban enhancement, promoting biodiversity, habitat creation, and water management while improving human well-being. However, decision-making often favours specific NBS designs, leading to uneven benefits distribution. Whereas human-centric NBS design relies on convenience, financial sustai...
Urban floods will continue to be an alarming issue worldwide due to climate change and urban expansion. The costly and less environmentally friendly grey infrastructure is not always the most adequate solution to resolve urban pluvial flooding issues. The combination of grey and blue-green infrastructures, also called hybrid infrastructure, has bee...
The process of urbanization can alter the local climate to the point that it threatens citizens’ well-being by creating heat-related hazards. The construction of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) can improve the regulation of surface energy exchange processes and address this problem. However, the time needed for a BGI to deliver a stable cooling per...
Primary considerations for urban blue-green infrastructure (BGI) encompass sustainable stormwater/urban heat management while biodiversity conservation is often considered an inherent benefit rather than a core planning requirement. However, ecological function of BGI as 'stepping stones' or linear corridors for otherwise fragmented habitats is und...
Human impacts such as habitat loss, climate change and biological invasions are radically altering biodiversity, with greater effects projected into the future. Evidence suggests human impacts may differ substantially between terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, but the reasons for these differences are poorly understood. We propose an integrativ...
Constant urban growth exacerbates the demand for residential, commercial and traffic areas, leading to progressive surface sealing and urban densification. With climate change altering precipitation and temperature patterns worldwide, cities are exposed to multiple risks, demanding holistic and anticipatory urban planning strategies and adaptive me...
Human impacts such as habitat loss, climate change and biological invasions are radically altering biodiversity, with even greater effects projected into the future. Evidence suggests human impacts may differ substantially between terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, but the reasons for these differences are poorly understood. We propose an integ...
Nature Based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly used for improving water quality, reducing urban flooding and providing ecological and amenity benefits. Although predominantly developed and implemented in industrialised countries, NBS are gaining traction in the Global South. Strategic planning is required to deliver the anticipated benefits and ensu...
Stormwater harvesting systems are a viable option to adapt cities to cope with climate change and reduce pressure on water supply services. This is particularly crucial in the event of natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, floods), where large parts of cities may become disconnected from a secure water supply for prolonged time periods. We demonstr...
Land cover alteration due to anthropogenic activities modify land surface properties in absorbing, reflecting and emitting radiation as well as infiltrating, evaporating and storing water. This consequently modifies surface energy and water fluxes and, thus, climatic conditions. Progressive surface sealing results in higher runoff rates, less groun...
Planning for future urban development and water infrastructure is uncertain due to changing human activities and climate. To quantify these changes, we need adaptable and fast models that can reliably explore scenarios without requiring extensive data and inputs. While such models have been recently considered for urban development, they are lackin...
Illicit discharges in urban stormwater drains are a major environmental concern that deteriorate downstream waterway health. Conventional detection methods such as stormwater drain visual inspection and dye testing have fundamental drawbacks and limitations which can prevent easy location and elimination of illegal discharges in a catchment. We dep...
Future climatic, demographic, technological, urban and socio-economic challenges call for more flexible and sustainable wastewater infrastructure systems. Exploratory modelling can help to investigate the consequences of these developments on the infrastructure. In order to explore large numbers of adaptation strategies, we need to re-balance the d...
High-resolution data collection of the urban stormwater network is crucial for future asset management and illicit discharge detection, but often too expensive as sensors and ongoing frequent maintenance works are not affordable. We developed an integrated water depth, electrical conductivity (EC), and temperature sensor that is inexpensive (USD 25...
High-resolution data collection of the urban stormwater network is crucial for future asset management and illicit discharge detection, but often too expensive as sensors are not affordable. We developed an integrated water depth, electrical conductivity (EC) and temperature sensor that is inexpensive ($25 USD), low power and easily implemented in...
Surface characteristics play a vital role in simulations for urban bioclimatic conditions. Changing relationships and distribution patterns of sealed and vegetated surfaces as well as building geometry across different scales in urban environments influence surface temperatures. Cities comprise different urban forms, which, depending on their surfa...
Stormwater management through Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) delivers multiple benefits across urban environments. However, current integrated modelling tools fail to provide a simplified way of assessing these benefits. In this study, we reflected upon the development of an interdisciplinary BGI planning-support tool, known as the Water Sensitive...
The Australian landscape is affected by abandoned mines that pose environmental, public health and safety risks. To promote the beneficial reuse, rehabilitation and/or remediation of these sites and understand their spatial arrangement, we compiled, classified and analysed a country-wide geospatial database of all known inactive hard rock mine site...
Urban water systems face severe challenges such as urbanisation, population growth and climate change. Traditional technical solutions, i.e., pipe-based, grey infrastructure, have a single purpose and are proven to be unsustainable compared to multi-purpose nature-based solutions. Green Infrastructure encompasses on-site stormwater management pract...
Recent developments in high- and middle-income countries have exhibited a shift from conventional urban water systems to alternative solutions that are more diverse in source separation, decentralization, and modularization. These solutions include non-grid, small-grid, and hybrid systems to address such pressing global challenges as climate change...
Sewer asset management gained momentum and importance in recent years due to economic considerations , since infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation directly represent major investments. Because physical urban water infrastructure has life expectancies of up to 100 years or more, contemporary urban drainage systems are strongly influenced by...
Stormwater harvesting (SWH) provides multiple benefits to urban water management. Other than providing water for human use, it also reduces the volume of polluted stormwater discharge to the environment. There are currently no methods available to quantify the additional environmental benefits, which could encourage greater uptake of the practice....
It is well known that rainwater harvesting (RWH) can augment water supply and reduce stormwater pollutant discharges. Due to the lack of continuous 2D modelling of urban flood coverage and its associated damage, the ability of RWH to reduce urban flood risks has not been fully evaluated. Literature suggests that small distributed storage spaces usi...
The simulation speed of two‐dimensional hydrodynamic flood models is a limiting factor when catchments are large, a considerable number of simulations is required (e.g., exploratory modeling, Monte‐Carlo flood simulations, or predicting probabilistic flood maps), or when there is a need for real‐time flood emergency management. Rapid Flood Models (...
To support sustainable urban planning and the design of water pollution mitigation strategies, the spatial and temporal trends of water quality in urban streams needs to be further understood. This study analyses over ten years of surface water quality data from 53 upstream catchments (20 of them predominated by a single type of land use) and two l...
Distributed green stormwater management infrastructure is increasingly applied worldwide to counter the negative impacts of urbanisation and climate change, while providing a range of benefits related to ecosystem services. They are known as Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) in Australia, Nature Based Solutions (NBS) in Europe, Low Impact Develop...
Pollution build-up and wash-off processes are often included in urban stormwater quality models. However, these models are often unreliable and have poor performance at large scales and in complicated catchments. This study tried to improve stormwater quality models by adopting the genetic programming (GP) approach to generate new build-up algorith...
Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is commonly employed to restore urban water systems back to pre-developed conditions and can provide multiple benefits. However, WSUD planning is a challenging task that involves multidisciplinary effort to deal with highly complex and uncertain futures. Hence, an integrated approach is required to address this t...
The multiple benefits of adopting distributed, green stormwater technologies in the local environment are increasingly
recognised, particularly in relation to water quality, flood mitigation, amenity and aesthetics. To
advance the integration of these systems into everyday decision-making practices, Planning Support Systems
(PSS) are considered vit...
Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) stormwater systems, also known as Low Impact Development (LID) systems or Nature Based Solutions (NBS), are currently implemented based on the underlying assumption of statistical stationarity of rainfall, which threatens to become outdated under climatic uncertainty. This paper applies a new downscaling method t...
Urban pluvial flooding is a global challenge that is frequently caused by the lack of available infiltration, retention and drainage capacity in cities. This paper presents RUFIDAM, an urban pluvial flood model, developed using GIS technology with the intention of rapidly estimating flood extent, depth and its associated damage. RUFIDAM integrates...
Distributed and green urban drainage infrastructure known as Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is increasingly being implemented in cities globally to combat climate change and urbanisation effects. Rigorous consideration of the urban context in terms of biophysical, socioeconomic and urban form related factors is crucial for optimal design outco...
A spatial model is presented, based on urban planning concepts for abstracting urban form characteristics in new and existing areas. Requiring input maps of land use, elevation, population and parameters from planning regulations, the model conceptualises (on a spatial grid) attributes including impervious fraction, allotment geometry and roof area...
Nature-based solutions provide a variety of benefits in growing cities, ranging from stormwater treatment to amenity provision such as aesthetics. However, the decision-making process involved in the installation of such green infrastructure is not straightforward, as much uncertainty around the location, size, costs and benefits impedes systematic...
Urban water management will face various challenges in the future. Growing population in cities, changing climatic conditions and uncertain availability of water resources necessitate forward-looking water policy strategies. In this paper, we introduce a new water balance model to evaluate urban water strategies at a city scale. The aim is to evalu...
Effort to narrow the gap between the production and use of scientific knowledge for environmental decision-making is gaining traction, yet in practice, supply and demand remains largely unbalanced. A qualitative study based on empirical analysis offers a novel approach to exploring key factors, focussing on seven water models in the context of two...
Traditional (technical) concepts to ensure a reliable water supply, a safe handling of wastewater and flood protection are increasingly criticised as outdated and unsustainable. These so-called centralised urban water systems are further maladapted to upcoming challenges because of their long lifespan in combination with their short-sighted plannin...
Spatial planning for green stormwater treatment technologies, known as Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), is a ‘wicked’ problem which can greatly benefit from the application of Planning Support Systems (PSS). Our review of currently existing WSUD-PSS shows that WSUD is approached from three perspectives: hydrological, urban planning and water go...
Despite the potential of Planning Support Systems to enhance urban planning of green urban water systems, their uptake is limited. This study seeks empirical, qualitative evidence for the causes and potential solutions of low uptake, using in-depth interviews with 24 planning practitioners. Some of the most important findings are that (1) the bigge...
Despite the potential of Planning Support Systems to enhance urban planning of green urban water systems, their uptake is limited. This study seeks empirical, qualitative evidence for the causes and potential solutions of low uptake, using in-depth interviews with 24 planning practitioners. Some of the most important findings are that (1) the bigge...
Long term planning of urban water infrastructure requires acknowledgement that transitions in the water system are driven by changes in the urban environment, as well as societal dynamics. Inherent to the complexity of these underlying processes is that the dynamics of a system's evolution cannot be explained by linear cause-effect relationships an...
The failure of pipelines in water distribution networks results in a significant volume of pristine quality water being lost. Failing infrastructure is often identified through different condition monitoring methods and then maintained. Increasing pressures on a rapidly growing water supply network call for more efficient leak detection techniques....
Increased urbanization, land development and changing population significantly impact the natural environment and urban water cycle. To tackle these challenges, new sustainable water management strategies, like water sensitive urban design (WSUD), have been gaining increasing interest in the last couple of years. The software tool UrbanBEATS (Urban...
Planning of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) technologies is traditionally undertaken with consideration of a limited number of predominantly biophysical factors. However, both suitability of a location and the ‘need’ for WSUD should ideally depend on large set of diverse and spatially explicit variables, including socio-demographic, planning an...
Integrated urban drainage modelling combines different aspects of the urban water system into a common framework. With increasing pressures of a changing climate, urban growth and economic constraints, the need for wider spread integration is necessary in the interest of a sustainable future. Greater complexity results in greater computational burd...
Land use and different scales of spatial data aggregation are important for integrated urban water modelling. Inadequacy of land use classification in such models, however, prompted development of a new water-centric classification. A thirteen-category system (considering land cover, utilisation, and urban zoning aspects) was devised and applied to...
This study showcases the dynamic simulation capabilities of the Urban Biophysical Environments And Technologies Simulator (UrbanBEATS) on a Melbourne catchment. UrbanBEATS simulates the planning, design and implementation of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) infrastructure in urban environments. It considers explicitly the interaction between urb...
Since stormwater wash-off of pollutants in urban areas is largely affected by environmental variability, it is very difficult to predict the amount of pollutants transported by stormwater runoff during and after individual rainfall events. We investigated the addition of a random component into an exponential wash-off equation of total suspended so...
Modelling interactions in urban drainage, water supply and broader integrated urban water systems has been conceptually and logistically challenging as evidenced in a diverse body of literature, found to be confusing and intimidating to new researchers. This review consolidates thirty years of research (initially driven by interest in urban drainag...
Modelling the design and implementation of urban water infrastructure (particularly decentralised systems) for strategic planning and policymaking requires detailed information of the spatial environment and quantitative knowledge of social preferences. Currently available models, however, mostly use land use, population and impervious cover data w...
With global change bringing about greater challenges for the resilient planning and management of urban water infrastructure, research has been invested in the development of a strategic planning tool, DAnCE4Water. The tool models how urban and societal changes impact the development of centralised and decentralised (distributed) water infrastructu...
Urban water systems are under increasing pressure due to the impact of climate change, population growth and urbanisation. In order to make our urban water systems more adaptable to these challenges new water management strategies must be developed. During the last 20 years many new decentralised technologies have emerged and their integration with...
To identify possible transition strategies for urban water DAnCE4Water (Dynamic Adaptation for eNabling City Evolution for Water) models the complex coherences between societal system, urban environment and the urban water system under different scenarios like climate changes, changes in the societal needs and urban changes. DAnCE4Water uses three...
DAnCE4Water is a strategic planning tool that simulates the dynamics of both urban development and societal systems with respect to the integrated water infrastructure. The Biophysical Module"s building block routine creates a conceptual description of the urban form and integrated water infrastructure allowing its performance to be efficiently mod...
Urban water systems are under increasing pressure due to the impact of climate, population growth and urbanisation. Conventional water infrastructure is frequently classified as highly unsuited to address future challenges. In order to make our urban water systems more resilient to these challenges, the development of new water management strategie...
Geothermal energy pile foundations are an alternative energy source for heating and cooling needs. Utilising this source of energy has great potential due to the environmental, economic and social benefits. This paper looks at an extensive amount of literature on the technology behind the system including the overall process, primary considerations...
The management of stormwater pollution has placed particular emphasis on the first flush phenomenon. However, definition and current methods of analyses of the phenomena contain serious limitations, the most important being their inability to capture a possible impact of the event size (total event volume) on the first flush. This paper presents th...
The first flush in urban runoff has been an important, yet disputed phenomenon amongst many researchers. The vast differences in the evidence could be solely due to limitations of the first flush current definition and the approach used for its assessment. There is a need for revisiting the first flush theory in the light of its practical applicati...