Abstract
Several cities in developing countries are challenging the permanent process of urbanization. This generates a great disturbance on the hydrological response of the urbanized area during rainfall events, which can cause floods. Among the disturbances that urbanized basins may suffer, it is found that variations in rain losses (hydrological abstractions) can be estimated by the named volumetric runoff coefficient (CVOL) methodology. In the present study, this methodology is used in an attempt to estimate the hydrological abstraction of two nearby urbanized basins, with different degrees of impermeability, located in the city of Cuenca in Ecuador. The data for that analysis were collected between April and May of 2017. The results obtained indicate that the micro-basin with the largest impervious area presents the higher initial hydrological losses, the higher rate of decrease in abstractions, and the higher stormwater runoff flows per unit area. In addition, the abstractions found in the two urban micro-basins show great sensitivity to the maximum rainfall intensity and do not relate to the antecedent soil moisture. These results demonstrate the importance of having higher pervious surfaces in urbanized areas because they lead to reduce negative impacts associated with increased stormwater runoff on impervious surfaces.
Highlights
At present, according to data reported in the Sustainable Development Goal 11 [1], around 3.5 billion people (50% of the world’s population) live in urban areas, and it is estimated that by 2030 this quantity will increase to about 60%
The time series of the abstractions recorded for recorded the micro-basins under study, and the rainfallproduced intensities produced in prethis period are thefor micro-basins under study, and the rainfall intensities in this period are sented in Figure presented in 6
The main purpose of this research has been to contribute to the knowledge of the hydrological response of urban basins, through the determination of hydrological abstractions in two contiguous urban micro-basins with similar drainage density and mean slope but with different levels of impermeability
Summary
At present, according to data reported in the Sustainable Development Goal 11 [1], around 3.5 billion people (50% of the world’s population) live in urban areas, and it is estimated that by 2030 this quantity will increase to about 60% This increased growth is more pronounced in Latin America since the United Nations (UN) indicates that 77% of the population is urban [2]. The urbanization process includes several physical changes in the hydrographic basins, among them, the imperviousness of the urban area and the construction of rainwater drainage systems that replace natural evacuation routes to collect the runoff produced by these rainfall events These changes have caused considerable modifications on the hydrological response of urbanized areas to a rain event [4] and, in agreement with. This impact on the hydrological response of a basin caused by the urbanization can generate urban floods that lead to economic losses, pollution, and health problems [7]
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