UNDERSTANDING THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN VEGETATION AND HYDROLOGICAL SYSTEMS IN TROPICAL URBAN AREAS FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Urbanization replaces vegetation with impervious surfaces, significantly influencing hydrological processes especially in tropical areas due to frequent and high intensity storms. Therefore, there are strong interests to better understand the interactions between the hydrologic and vegetation systems to mitigate urban water related problems such as flooding. The objective of this dissertation is to enhance the understanding of vegetation ? hydrological system interactions in tropical urban areas for sustainable water management. This dissertation first examines the interactions in plot scale through estimating vegetation canopy throughfall and evaluating green roof hydrological influence. These understanding are then upscaled to formulate flooding mitigation at catchment scale via integrated distributed hydrological model, and to examine hydrological changes during the different phases of urbanization. Finally, a genetic algorithm is proposed to optimize locations of green structures for stormwater management. Overall, the results of this dissertation benefit catchment-level stormwater and water resources management, particularly in the tropics.