Abstract
The increasing imperviousness of urban areas reduces the infiltration and evapotranspiration capacity of urban catchments and results in increased runoff. In the last few decades, several solutions and techniques have been proposed to prevent such impacts by restoring the hydrological cycle. A limiting factor in spreading the use of such systems is the lack of proper modelling tools for design, especially for the infiltration processes in a growing medium. In this research, a physically-based model, employing the explicit Finite Volume Method (FVM), is proposed for modelling infiltration into growing media. The model solves a modified version of the Richards equation using a formulation which takes into account the main characteristics of green infrastructure substrates. The proposed model was verified against the HYDRUS-1D software and the comparison of results confirmed the suitability of the proposed model for correctly describing the hydraulic behaviour of soil substrates.
Highlights
Progressing urbanization of undeveloped land leads to an increasing amount of impervious surfaces at the expense of natural areas
The numerical diffusion (ND) introduced by the upwind scheme arises from a first-order approximation of the spatial derivative ∂θ/∂z, this is evident if we examine the Taylor series expansion: θ( z j +1 ) = θ( z j ) +
Four types of soils covering a wide range of plausible green roof substrates were considered: sand, loamy sand, Vulcaflor and Hilten soil [36]
Summary
Progressing urbanization of undeveloped land leads to an increasing amount of impervious surfaces at the expense of natural areas. Leopold [1], while describing the effects of urbanization on the. Water 2015, 7 hydrological cycle, identified such major effects as reduced infiltration and evapotranspiration, resulting in increased runoff and reduced groundwater recharge. Traditional stormwater management design focused on collecting stormwater in piped networks and transporting it off-site as quickly as possible. Increases in the incidence of flooding and combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in urban areas demonstrate that the traditional approach is inadequate for managing stormwater. Development (LID) approach aims to preserve and restore natural features, minimize the imperviousness of urban catchments, and increase their infiltration and evapotranspiration capacities. LID techniques include bio-retention cells, grass swales, porous pavements, green roofs, and many other measures
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