Abstract
A tool called WetSpa-Urban was developed to respond to the need for precise runoff estimations in an increasingly urbanized world. WetSpa-Urban links the catchment model WetSpa-Python to the urban drainage model Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). WetSpa-Python is an open-source, fully distributed, process-based model that accurately represents surface hydrological processes but does not simulate hydraulic structures. SWMM is a well-known open-source hydrodynamic tool that calculates pipe flow processes in an accurate manner while runoff is calculated conceptually. Merging these tools along with certain modifications, such as improving the efficiency of surface runoff calculation and simulating flow at the sub-catchment level, makes WetSpa-Urban suitable for event-based and continuous rainfall–runoff modeling for urban areas. WetSpa-Urban was applied to the Watermaelbeek catchment in Brussels, Belgium, which recently experienced rapid urbanization. The model efficiency was evaluated using different statistical methods, such as Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency and model bias. In addition, a statistical investigation, independent of time, was performed by applying the box-cox transformation to the observed and simulated values of the flow peaks. By speeding up the simulation of the hydrological processes, the performance of the surface runoff calculation increased by almost 130%. The evaluation of the simulated 10 minute flow versus the observed flow at the outlet of the catchment for 2015 reached a Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.86 and a bias equal to 0.06.
Highlights
The most recent study done by the UN Population Division in 2018 [1] estimated that more than 55% of the world’s population was living in urban areas
Rapid urbanization has a significant impact on urban runoff, with the natural environment being replaced by impervious materials, including concrete and asphalt
The applicability of the WetSpa-Urban software was tested on the Watermaelbeek (WMB) catchment, which has an area of 6.13 km2 and is situated in the upper Woluwe catchment in the Brussels capital region
Summary
The most recent study done by the UN Population Division in 2018 [1] estimated that more than 55% of the world’s population was living in urban areas. Rapid growth and development in urban settlements will continue, with almost 60% of people expected to live in urban areas by 2030 [1]. Sealing the urban surface increases the heterogeneity and complexity of land and results in changes to infiltration capacity of topsoil due to soil compaction [2] and its geomorphological characteristics, such as slope [3]. Due to these transformations, both the quality and the quantity of stormwater runoff are prone to change. Urban hydrological processes are complex because of the presence of various barriers causing flow diversion, different building storage capacities, complex geometry, etc. [4]
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