A simple model of flow-rate attenuation in sewer systems. Application to urban stormwater source control

Guido Petrucci (1) , Bruno Tassin (2)

1 VUB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel
2 LEESU - Laboratoire Eau, Environnement et Systèmes Urbains

In urban stormwater management, ''soft'' solutions are being widely applied, including stormwater source control. However, no specific resource-effective model is available to assess their effects at the city-scale. As a consequence, source control regulations are often based on simplistic hydrologic assumptions. In this paper, we apply a top-down modeling approach to this problem, and we develop a simple model of flow-rate attenuation in the sewer system, using a numerical empirical approach. Then, we apply the model to source control regulations, assessing which type of regulation is more effective depending on relative positions in a catchment. We show that a model requiring only two types of information about a catchment (concentration time and pluviometry) can provide relevant information on source control effectiveness. This information could be helpful, for example, to define a stormwater zoning.

Keywords: Flow attenuation; Urban hydrology; Storm drainage; Source control; Top-down modeling; Best management practices

Domains: Environmental studies; Hydrology; Architecture, space management

Guido Petrucci, Bruno Tassin. A simple model of flow-rate attenuation in sewer systems. Application to urban stormwater source control. Journal of Hydrology, 2015, 522, pp.534-543. ⟨10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.01.012⟩. ⟨hal-01136837⟩