Sustainable Stormwater Management and Bioretention: An Overview of Reviews of the Last 10 Years

Extreme rainfalls caused by climate change are a growing worldwide threat to the urban environment. Nature-based solutions (NBS) employ soil and vegetation to manage and treat stormwater while ensuring extensive ecosystem services. In the last decades, these solutions, such as Rain Gardens, Green Roofs, Vegetated Swales, and Constructed Wetlands, have been implemented worldwide under different names. This study is a systematic overview of reviews focusing on the last 10 years of sustainable stormwater management literature. First, a general bibliometric and topic analysis highlights trends and core themes addressed by the reviews. Then, the article delves into bioretention, analyzing water quantity and quality regulation as a function of design choices on media and vegetation. Including an internal water storage zone and using amendments such as biochar and water treatment residuals are relevant, sustainable features to target water pollution and hydrologic functioning. Vegetation, too, has a prominent role. Nevertheless, only the most recent reviews address the species’ selection, highlighting a significant research gap.