ArcDrain: A GIS Add-In for Automated Determination of Surface Runoff in Urban Catchments

Cristina Manchado, Alejandro Roldán-Valcarce, Daniel Jato-Espino and Ignacio Andrés-Doménech
Additional contact information
Cristina Manchado: EGICAD Research Group, Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
Alejandro Roldán-Valcarce: GITECO Research Group, Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
Daniel Jato-Espino: GREENIUS Research Group, Universidad Internacional de Valencia–VIU, Calle Pintor Sorolla 21, 46002 Valencia, Spain
Ignacio Andrés-Doménech: Instituto Universitario de Investigación de Ingeniería del Agua y Medio Ambiente (IIAMA), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: Surface runoff determination in urban areas is crucial to facilitate ex ante water planning, especially in the context of climate and land cover changes, which are increasing the frequency of floods, due to a combination of violent storms and increased imperviousness. To this end, the spatial identification of urban areas prone to runoff accumulation is essential, to guarantee effective water management in the future. Under these premises, this work sought to produce a tool for automated determination of urban surface runoff using a geographic information systems (GIS). This tool, which was designed as an ArcGIS add-in called ArcDrain, consists of the discretization of urban areas into subcatchments and the subsequent application of the rational method for runoff depth estimation. The formulation of this method directly depends on land cover type and soil permeability, thereby enabling the identification of areas with a low infiltration capacity. ArcDrain was tested using the city of Santander (northern Spain) as a case study. The results achieved demonstrated the accuracy of the tool for detecting high runoff rates and how the inclusion of mitigation measures in the form of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and green infrastructure (GI) can help reduce flood hazards in critical zones.

Keywords: automation; flood mitigation; geographic information system; land cover; peak flow; permeable surfaces; rational method; urban runoff (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8802/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8802/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:16:p:8802-:d:618659

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().