Abstract
Urban stormwater models can be semi-distributed (SD) or fully distributed (FD). SD models are based on subcatchment units with various land use types, where rainfall is applied and runoff volumes are estimated and routed. FD models are based on the two dimensional (2D) discretization of the overland surface, which has a finer resolution with each grid-cell representing one land use type, where runoff volumes are estimated and directly routed by the 2D overland flow module. While SD models have been commonly applied in urban stormwater modeling, FD models are generally more detailed and theoretically more realistic. This paper presents a comparison between SD and FD models using two case studies in Coimbra (Portugal) and London (UK). To enable direct comparison between SD and FD setups, a model-building process is proposed and a novel sewer inlet representation is applied. SD and FD modeling results are compared against observed records in sewers and photographic records of flood events. The results suggest that FD models are more sensitive to surface storage parameters and require higher detail of the sewer network representation.
Highlights
Urban stormwater models are simulation tools that include algorithms and methods to describe the main physical processes related to the flow of stormwater across urban catchments
This paper presents a full-scale comparison between SD and fully distributed (FD) urban stormwater models and suggests innovative concepts for the model building process, and to establish the connection between modules of SD and FD models
Runoff volumes captured by surface ponds are captured by FD models, since they consider the runoff on the overland mesh, whereas in SD models can neglect these volumes depending on subcatchment delineation and their discharge definition
Summary
Urban stormwater models are simulation tools that include algorithms and methods to describe the main physical processes related to the flow of stormwater across urban catchments. Examples of important advancements are: increase of available data (e.g., digital map [18], advanced collaborative sources of information [19], weather radar data [20]); advances in technology (e.g., remote sensing [21], computing techniques [22]); and improvements of numerical methods (e.g., reduction in simulation times in 2D overland modeling [23], new mathematical approaches [24,25,26]) These improvements are opening the discussion for the application of FD urban stormwater models. 3, the case studies are introduced and Section 4 modeling approaches and defines the concepts for model building and to represent the interactions presents the comprehensive and detailed analysis of modeling results.
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