Urban rainstorm and waterlogging scenario simulation based on SWMM under changing environment

Abstract

Urban rainstorm and waterlogging occurred more frequently in recent years, causing huge economic losses and serious social harms. Accurate rainstorm and waterlogging simulation is of significant value for disaster prevention and mitigation. This paper proposed a numerical model for urban rainstorm and waterlogging based on the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) and Geographic Information System (GIS), and the model was applied in Lianhu district of Xi'an city of China. Furthermore, the effects of rainfall characteristics, pipe network implementation level and urbanization level on waterlogging were explored from the perspectives of spatial distribution of waterlogging points, drainage capacity of pipe network and surface runoff generation and confluence. The results show that: (1) with the increase of rainfall recurrence period, the peak of total water accumulating volume, the average decline rate of water accumulating volume and the number of waterlogging nodes increase; (2) optimizing the pipe diameter can shorten the average overload time of the pipe network from the entire pipe network, but for a single pipe, optimizing the pipe diameter may lead to overloading of unoptimized downstream pipeline; (3) the lower the imperviousness, the less the number of waterlogging nodes and average time of water accumulating, and (4) the west, northwest and southwest areas are relatively affected by the imperviousness, only improving the underlying surface conditions has limited influence on waterlogging in the study area. This study can provide reference for urban waterlogging prevention and reduction and pipe network reconstruction.

Keywords: Catchments division; Disaster prevention and mitigation; Numerical simulation; SWMM; Scenario design; Urban rainstorm and waterlogging disaster.