Assessing the Impact of Urban Development and On-Site Stormwater Detention on Regional Hydrology Using Monte Carlo Simulated Rainfall

Rodney Ronalds () and Hong Zhang
Additional contact information
Rodney Ronalds: Griffith University
Hong Zhang: Griffith University

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2019, vol. 33, issue 7, No 17, 2517-2536

Abstract: Abstract Urban development is a contributor to increased peak runoff and adverse hydrologic effects in regional catchments. On-Site Stormwater Detention (OSD) is a common way to mitigate these problems, however it is well known that OSD can have the opposite effect when it is installed at inappropriate locations. Parameter uncertainty and the need for a probabilistic approach to hydrograph generation are also factors that add to concerns regarding our reliance on OSD for the protection of regional hydrology. This study contributes to awareness of these issues and a practical solution to the problem. A hydrologic model for Monte Carlo simulation of regional catchment hydrographs has been developed using interrelated modules based on previous studies. A sample of ten regional catchments has been modelled with three simulation scenarios: i) status quo, ii) a land parcel of varying sizes is urbanised at varying locations within the regional catchment, and iii) the urbanised land parcel includes OSD. The focus on the results has been the identification and analysis of two key parameters that influence the regional catchments’ peak runoff, being the size and location of the urbanised land parcel. A regression analysis of the model results has revealed recurring patterns that have been used to develop new equations for predicting the mean impact of urbanisation and OSD on regional catchment peak runoff. The study highlights the significance of rainfall pattern uncertainty and the importance of considering land parcel location in considering the need for OSD as part of urban land development projects.

Keywords: On-site Stormwater detention; Regional effect; Urban development; Runoff routing; Monte Carlo simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-019-02275-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:33:y:2019:i:7:d:10.1007_s11269-019-02275-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-019-02275-y

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().