Abstract

Meeting the new regulations of the 2009 Flood Risk Regulations and the 2010 Flood and Water Management Act, as well as challenges due to climate change and increased flooding, requires a holistic approach to surface water management. This necessitates the need for an integrated approach to river, sewer and surface water runoff modeling for assessing and mitigating flood risk. This chapter presents an integrated catchment modeling methodology for use in assessing the environmental impact from urban catchments on the receiving waters and planning wet weather discharges in urban drainage systems. The method consists essentially of dynamically coupling one dimensional (1D) hydrodynamic simulation of flows in rivers, open channels and pipe networks with two dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic simulation of surface flooding in the urban environment and river floodplain. The resulting model provides a comprehensive analytical framework for simultaneously modeling below ground and above ground elements of catchments to accurately represent all flow paths and improve understanding of the processes occurring in the holistic environment. The model takes into account the interactions of natural and manmade environments and can simulate the water quality impact of polluting runoff and effluent from urban areas. Such capabilities will greatly enhance the ability of water utilities to conceive and evaluate sound and reliable urban catchment strategies such as storm sewer separation, real time control and construction of additional storage. The versatility and wide range of applications of the model are discussed and conclusions are stated. Enhancement of urban catchment planning, management and operation is a principal benefit of the proposed methodology.

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