Title: Flood Resilience Design for Drinking Water Infrastructure: Protecting Treatment Plants, Wellheads, and Distribution Systems Through Green Stormwater Engineering
Authors: Oreoluwa Adedapo, Nwakamma Ninduwezuor-Ehiobu, Henry Chukwuemeka Olisakwe
Volume: 10
Issue: 9
Pages: 133-161
Publication Date: 2026/09/28
Abstract:
Background: Flooding threatens drinking-water safety through raw-water contamination, wellhead inundation, treatment-plant damage, power and chemical interruption, pressure loss, backflow, cross-contamination, and delayed recovery. Main body: This critical review translates flood-hardening and green stormwater engineering into a drinking-water infrastructure framework for treatment plants, wellfields, pump stations, storage, and distribution networks. The review combines hazard mapping, site grading, conveyance, detention, infiltration, perimeter protection, redundancy, and green infrastructure within a layered strategy. Green infrastructure reduces runoff volume and peak flow outside critical footprints, while floodproofing, elevation, backup power, isolation, and safe exceedance routing protect essential processes. A source-facility-network-consumer model, tiered design protocol, and service-based performance measures address resistance, continuity, recovery, and water-quality integrity. Conclusions: Flood-resilient drinking-water design requires coordinated control of environmental loading, facility entry pathways, process dependencies, distribution pressure, and recovery. Combining green stormwater engineering with structural and operational safeguards reduces public-health consequences during compound events.