Efficiency of sustainable urban drainage systems during flash floods

Abstract: As the world’s population is migrating more into urban areas, landcover changes follow. Natural pervious areas are being converted to impervious areas, which when subjected to rain generates more stormwater runoff. Stormwater management is a problem that cities today are challenged with, infrastructure is getting older and precipitation patterns are changing due to climate change. Due to climate change extreme precipitation events are likely to increase and therefore increase the probability of urban flooding. Urban flooding can be caused by extreme precipitation events with a short duration, or so-called flash floods. These flash floods can overwhelm the drainage system in place which therefore can cause flooding. This problem has inspired engineers to rethink stormwater management, moving from traditional grey drainage systems to more green and sustainable drainage systems. Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS) are drainage systems that aim to regain the properties of non-urbanised areas, retain the natural hydrological cycle, and have recreational values for the surrounding societies. This study investigated how different SuDS behave when subjected to flash floods. A model of a synthetic case study was built in the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) and sustainable urban drainage systems implemented. The solutions investigated were bioretention cells, rain gardens, infiltration trenches, green roofs, and permeable pavements. Three different rain events were analysed, all with different precipitation depth but with the same duration of 1 hour. Results showed that bioretention cells could reduce runoff volumes to the highest extent while green roofs could reduce the peak runoff the most. Other results were analysed like efficiency and cost. Bioretention cell came out on top in efficiency but had the highest cost. Overall, all the solutions showed promise in reducing runoff during flash floods, but the reduction capacity goes down with increased precipitation.