Since 2008 more than 50 percent of the world's population live in urban areas [1]. The resulting urban environment, that is characterized by a high density and an intense urban metabolism, has daily needs that cannot be fulfilled without efficient and adequate urban infrastructures.
These infrastructures have been submitted to continuous and additive growth, resulting in operating conditions that sometimes are well beyond the infrastructure's initial concepts. Furthermore, some external inputs, as those derived from climate change scenarios, have been putting additional stress in the previous situation [2]. In these cases, the desired continuous guarantee of efficient urban infrastructures and their adequate functions cannot be provided only by active management but depends on reevaluating the infrastructure's initial design and their performance to present and future design scenarios.
This paper, based on case study of the NBSinfra project, studies the present conditions of an urban creek, that is located upstream of the city center of Aveiro, in Portugal, that is known as the “Venice of Portugal”, due to the great number of canals that connect the sea to the Atlantic Ocean. These conditions, especially in high tides and intense precipitation, have resulted in urban floods, that are now minimized through the active management of floodgates.
The study starts by evaluating the creeks initial conditions, past hydraulic performance, and social importance. Based on these findings, the historical precipitation patterns were studied, in order to define different rainfall design scenarios, for which the planned infrastructure should provide an adequate response.
Past interventions and resulting performance were then analyzed, as input for a new design that comprises engineered natured-based solutions, as a means to increase the hydraulic performance but also to promote social and economic co-benefits. For each proposed solution, and defined scenario, the hydraulic performance of the system was evaluated.
These methodology and associated results desire to effectively adapt current solutions and increase the resilience of urban infrastructures in the city of Aveiro, while contributing for the definition of an integrated water management procedures for the city.