Design criteria and expected benefits due to the implementation of compensatory techniques on urban drainage to control on source urban stormwater runoff, based on computer modeling applied to a case study in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro

ABSTRACT

The urbanization process results in detrimental changes in the hydrological cycle to the population. In order to mitigate these effects, compensatory techniques in urban drainage aim at increasing hydrological sustainability in urban expansion. In this sense, this paper intended to, through computer modeling, evaluate the effect of the adoption of these techniques on site scale and at the watershed scale, as well as to discuss different design concepts. The modeling was performed for different scenarios, considering the implementation of the techniques isolated and combined. The parameters proposed for modeling aimed to check the extreme possibilities for their application in order to make data available for actual projects. The rainfalls have been evaluated for different durations and intensities, thus facilitating the extrapolation of this study results for variable watershed scales. The modeling results pointed to potential benefits on the urban drainage due to the compensatory techniques adoption at the lot scale, with the property owner being capable to easily control the smaller design rainfalls. This was the case of the scenarios with raingardens isolated or combined in series with a lot reservoir or the scenarios where a permeable pavement on sidewalk received runoff from the adjacent lot. The parallel combination of a lot reservoir proposed by the municipal legislation and a raingarden with only 0,07 m depth would be capable of hidrologically neutralize the impacts of the occupation for all project rains analyzed. Nevertheless, the same reservoir proposed by the municipal legislation, when used isolatedly, showed little or none benefits on the basin scale.

Keywords:
compensatory techniques in urban drainage; sustainable urban drainage; source urban stormwater runoff control