A comprehensive review of spatial allocation of LID-BMP-GI practices: Strategies and optimization tools

Highlights: • Significance of spatial allocation of LID-BMP-GI practices is illustrated. • Strategic planning cycle and its main components are summarized. • Existing spatial allocation optimization tools are reviewed and categorized. • Potential research and development opportunities are identified. Low-impact development (LID), best management practice (BMP), and green infrastructure (GI) are semi-engineered stormwater management practices that have been widely studied and implemented worldwide. Implemented in the complex environment of urban areas, LID-BMP-GI practices often intertwine with a very large number of hydro-environmental and socio-economic considerations and constraints. Therefore, they need to be carefully selected, designed, and allocated within an urban area. Both planning and optimization can lead to more systematic and strategic approaches to address this multi-scale, multi-parameter problem of practice allocation. In this review, we first identify the main components of the strategic planning cycle, their scope and inter-relationships, and their corresponding mathematical representations. We then present a comprehensive review of the existing literature on spatial allocation optimization tools (SAOTs) for LID-BMP-GI practices and summarize the generic structure and the systematic typology of the existing SAOTs. We conclude with a discussion of several current research gaps in the spatial allocation of LID-BMP-GI practices. In this review, we aim to summarize the strategies and optimization tools for the spatial allocation of LID-BMP-GI practices that are beneficial to practitioners. The other aim is to provide recommendations for future research on the development of more advanced and comprehensive SAOTs.