Influence of Low-Impact Development in Flood Control: A Case Study of the Febres Cordero Stormwater System of Guayaquil (Ecuador)

Fabian Quichimbo-Miguitama, David Matamoros, Leticia Jiménez and Pablo Quichimbo-Miguitama
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Fabian Quichimbo-Miguitama: Facultad de Ingeniería en Ciencias de la Tierra, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Campus Gustavo Galindo, Guayaquil EC090112, Ecuador
David Matamoros: Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Matemáticas, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Campus Gustavo Galindo, Guayaquil EC090112, Ecuador
Leticia Jiménez: Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto s/n, Loja EC1101608, Ecuador
Pablo Quichimbo-Miguitama: Departamento de Recursos Hídricos y Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Cuenca, Cuenca EC010207, Ecuador

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Urban flooding is a major problem in many coastal cities. The rapidly shifting patterns of land use and demographic increase are making conventional approaches to stormwater management fail. In developing countries such as Ecuador, a lack of monitoring, financial constraints and absence of proper policies exacerbate flooding problems. This work assesses the implementation of two Low Impact Development strategies (LIDs), namely, green streets and rain barrels, as nature-based solutions to mitigate flooding problems. The use of the “Stormwater Management Model” (SWMM) helped to contrast the new approach with the current state of the drainage system, including normal and extreme scenarios. With an implementation of 1.4% (19.5 ha) of the total area with LIDs, the reduction of runoff for short events (200 min) is around 20%, and for extreme events (within 24 h) is around 19% in comparison to the conventional approach. Flooded nodes were reduced to 27% for short events, and to 4% for extreme events. The peak flooding system had a reduction to 22% for short events and 15% for extreme events. These highlights help to increase city resilience, and authorities and stakeholders should engage in climate actions to reduce flood risks complementing drainage operations with nature-based solutions. Moreover, calibrated results in this article serve to increase awareness among municipal authorities regarding the importance of maintaining flooding records to improve modelling results for decision-makings processes.

Keywords: green–blue strategies; green streets; rain barrels; overflow; SWMM; flooding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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