Catchment-based imperviousness metrics impacts on floods in Niushou River basin, Nanjing City, East China

Abstract

Concerns regarding urbanization impacts on floods gradually moved from end-of-pipe solutions, based on open channel hydraulics improvement, to imperviousness ratio limiting and then to land use control and to integrated planning at local and large scale levels. The Niushou River basin is one of the fastest urbanizing areas in Nanjing City, East China, however, the high urban land percentage has leaded to series of flooding events. The paper aims to reveal the impact of imperviousness ratio, patterns and drainage system on flooding areas based on the unit of catchment and Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). The following conclusions were reached. 1) The ratio or spatial characteristics of the impervious surface affected the runoff volumes and associated floods areas. Despite the well-established drainage system, the high imperviousness ratio, particularly clustered pattern in locations such as hydrological sensitive zones aggravated the flooding tension across the basin. 2) The poor drainage hydraulic efficiency in local areas, and the lack of integral processes of infiltration, yield, storage and discharge in local catchment and larger basin are also significant factors. 3) The Niushou River basin development should improve the drainage transformations from a single local, short-term drainage process into integral, elastic processes of infiltration, yield, storage, and discharge.