Rainfall–Runoff Simulations to Assess the Potential of SuDS for Mitigating Flooding in Highly Urbanized Catchments

Daniel Jato-Espino, Susanne M. Charlesworth, Joseba R. Bayon and Frank Warwick
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Daniel Jato-Espino: GITECO Research Group, Universidad de Cantabria, Av. de los Castros S/N, 39005 Santander, Spain
Susanne M. Charlesworth: Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), Coventry University, West Midlands CV1 5FB, UK
Joseba R. Bayon: Department of Project and Construction Management, Donostia City Council, Calle Larramendi 16, 20006 Donostia (Gipuzkoa), Spain
Frank Warwick: Department of Geography, Environment and Disaster Management, Coventry University, West Midlands CV1 5LW, UK

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) constitute an alternative to conventional drainage when managing stormwater in cities, reducing the impact of urbanization by decreasing the amount of runoff generated by a rainfall event. This paper shows the potential benefits of installing different types of SuDS in preventing flooding in comparison with the common urban drainage strategies consisting of sewer networks of manholes and pipes. The impact of these systems on urban water was studied using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which are useful tools when both delineating catchments and parameterizing the elements that define a stormwater drainage system. Taking these GIS-based data as inputs, a series of rainfall–runoff simulations were run in a real catchment located in the city of Donostia (Northern Spain) using stormwater computer models, in order to compare the flow rates and depths produced by a design storm before and after installing SuDS. The proposed methodology overcomes the lack of precision found in former GIS-based stormwater approaches when dealing with the modeling of highly urbanized catchments, while the results demonstrated the usefulness of these systems in reducing the volume of water generated after a rainfall event and their ability to prevent localized flooding and surcharges along the sewer network.

Keywords: geographic information system; rainfall–runoff simulations; stormwater modeling; sustainable urban drainage systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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