Development of a Simple Design Method for an Infiltration Facility using Curve Number

Abstract

As climate change accelerates, the scale and intensity of natural disasters are increasing, and the frequency of localized heavy rains is increasing rapidly. Urban watersheds have a high ratio of impervious areas. So there is a high possibility of flooding in the event of torrential rain, and large-scale damage can occur because the population and material resources are highly concentrated. River improvements, sewerage maintenance, and rainwater storage installations are frequently used to reduce flood damage. More recently, low-impact development (LID) techniques have been proposed; however, LID facilities are installed on a small scale and in various locations. In addition, they require many parameters for a rainfall-runoff analysis; consequently, the design of these facilities require too much manpower and time. In this study, we analyze the rainfall-runoff reduction effect based on the size of a facility to present a simpler, more efficient design method. Next, the curve number (CN) corresponding to the capacity of each facility is estimated and the correlation between the facility’s area ratio and the CN is analyzed. As a result, a relational expression that can calculate the new CN with the same rainfall-runoff reduction effect as the installed LID facility was derived by using the CN before the installation of the LID facility and the facility area ratio. Thus, we present a simple design method using the recalculated CN without directly entering LID facilities into a storm water management model (SWMM).