Automated Urban Rainfall–Runoff Model Generation with Detailed Land Cover and Flow Routing
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 24, Issue 5
Abstract
Constructing hydrological models for large urban areas is time consuming and laborious due to the requirements for high-resolution data and fine model detail. An open-source algorithm using adaptive subcatchments is proposed to automate Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) construction. The algorithm merges areas with homogeneous land cover and a common outlet into larger subcatchments, while retaining small-scale details where land cover or topography is more heterogeneous. The method was tested on an 85-ha urban catchment in Helsinki, Finland. A model with adaptive subcatchments reproduced the observed discharge at the catchment outlet with high model-performance indices emphasizing the strength of the proposed method. Computation times of the adaptive model were substantially lower than those of a corresponding model with uniformly sized high-resolution subcatchments. Given that high-resolution land cover and topography data are available, the proposed algorithm provides an advanced method for implementing SWMM models automatically even for large urban catchments without a substantial manual workload. Simultaneously, the high-resolution land cover details of the catchments can be maintained where they matter the most.
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Acknowledgments
This research is a part of the EU WaterJPI project “Multi-scale urban flood forecasting” (MUFFIN). The funding was provided by Maa- ja vesitekniikan tuki ry. The tool is available from GitHub (Niemi and Warsta 2019) ). Luode Consulting Oy is acknowledged for the discharge measurements. The City of Helsinki and the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY are acknowledged for the DEM and the land cover data, available from City of Helsinki (2019), and for the stormwater network information. The temperature data from the Kumpula weather station of the Finnish Meteorological Institute are available from FMI (2018). Helsingin Seniorisäätiö and the City of Helsinki are acknowledged for allowing rainfall measurements on their premises. Thanks are due to Lassi Warsta for sharing his ideas about automated SWMM construction and to Ambika Khadka for discussions regarding stormwater modeling.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 24 • Issue 5 • May 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 6, 2018
Accepted: Dec 7, 2018
Published online: Feb 27, 2019
Published in print: May 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Jul 27, 2019
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