LOW IMPACT DEVELOPMENT MODELING TO MANAGE URBAN STORMWATER RUNOFF: CASE STUDY OF GORZÓW WIELKOPOLSK

Ireneusz Nowogoński

doi:10.3846/jeelm.2020.12670

Abstract

Uncontrolled urbanization causes local flooding and deterioration of the water quality of receivers as a result of an increase in peak flow rate and increased washing out of contaminants from the catchment area. Currently, classic storage tanks are most often used. An alternative solution may be the use of Low Impact Development (LID), i.e. the preservation and restoration of natural landscape elements, minimizing the imperviousness of the catchment in the form of rain barrels, permeable walkways or bio-retention reservoirs. The comparison of both techniques was carried out using the Environmental Protection Agency Storm Water Management Model (EPA SWMM). The influence of several solutions on a selected urbanized catchment located in Gorzów Wielkopolski was tested.

Highlights

The increasing share of non-permeable terrain in urban areas causes significant changes in the land properties
The analysis showed that the range of the applied model rainfalls should be extended to include rainfalls with lower intensity, in order to properly assess the influence of classical solutions and Lowimpact development (LID) technologies
– reducing flow rate in drainage allows to reduce the volume of local flooding, especially in the case of low rainfall intensity;

Summary

Introduction

The increasing share of non-permeable terrain in urban areas causes significant changes in the land properties. Bosley (2008) carried out a sensitivity analysis for 19 of the most frequently used hydrological models or computer programs for an identical area of comparison; it was found that the SWMM was the most appropriate hydrological model to apply in urban areas for various scenarios of land development and the implementation of LID techniques. Due to the limited implementation of LID techniques in the SWMM model, there is a necessity in some cases of applying additional algorithms enabling the optimization of solutions and acceleration of simulation calculations (Zhu et al, 2019). It should be considered whether the optimistic assumptions of using LID will be true for existing systems. If the security is insufficient, the implementation of classic solutions, such as retention or outflow delay in the channel network should be considered

Materials and methodology

Results and discussion

Conclusions