Sustainability Performance of Bioretention Systems with Various Designs

Bioretention systems for urban drainage are one type of blue-green infrastructure that has gained more attention in recent decades. However, knowledge of the effects of various bioretention design elements on integrated sustainability criteria needs to be developed. The aim of this research was to gain a better understanding of the relative sustainability of various bioretention designs. In a multicriteria analysis, the identification and benchmarking of social, economic, and technical-environmental aspects was accomplished by a review of literature. The main finding was that while design features had a major impact on bioretention performance, no single design configuration excelled in all criteria. High scores in the social criteria were associated with the use of trees and smaller volumes of pumice in the filter material mixture. For the economic criteria, extensive use of concrete and a complex mixture of filter material increased the costs. The system with a water-saturated zone and a variety of plant species outperformed the other systems in the technical-environmental criteria. The results can be used to support decisions regarding bioretention design and utilized as a reference to assess design configurations for bioretention implementation