Understanding the impact of land-use change on urban floods and
evaluating alternate methods for stormwater management using Low Impact
Development
Abstract
Due to urbanization, there is an increase in the impervious surface and
in peak runoff volumes. In the past, there is significant damage caused
by urban floods. Urban floods are becoming more frequent disasters in
recent decades due to rapid changes in Land Use and Land Cover. In this
study, we compare the impact of land-use changes on peak runoff and
timing for the last three decades using the PCSWMM model for the
semi-urban clusters in South India. Further, we analyze the effect of
future development on peak runoff. It was observed that there is a
considerable increase in flood peak (82.49%) when compared to the last
decade. We proposed and evaluated alternate methods under future land
use (2040) using LID wherein different scenarios were generated and
tested. To evaluate the changes in hydrological characteristics, three
scenarios at a regional scale were explored. The first scenario is the
present situation. The second one is the traditional urban development
scenario and the third one is urban development with LID controls. The
model simulation results confirmed the effectiveness in reducing the
surface runoff depth, peak flow rate, total flood volume, and earlier
peak times using LIDs.