Sustainable Water Management Solutions for Large Cities
(Proceedings of symposium S2 held during the Seventh IAHS Scientific Assembly at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, April 2005). IAHS Publ. 293, 2005, 196-202On-site stormwater detention as an alternative flood control measure in ultra-urban environments in developing countries
FlAvio Cesar Borba Mascarenhas, Marcelo Gomes Miguez, Luiz Paulo Canedo de Magalhães & Jorge Henrique Alves Prodanoff
Computational Hydraulic Laboratory, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
flavio@hidro.ufrj.br
Abstract
Urban floods tend to become more hazardous as urbanization increases. In developing countries, urbanization is not always accomplished by adequate land-use planning. Furthermore, in ultra-urban environments, the lack of open spaces, occupation of flood plains, and high population densities decrease flood control measure alternatives. Therefore, source control techniques can be an interesting option for flood mitigation. This paper presents a discussion about the use of on-site stormwater detention tanks, based on the comparison of hydraulic design criteria and different patterns of spatial arrangements and coverage due to public acceptance and investment capability. The assessment of different scenerios has been developed with the aid of a mathematical cell model (Mascarenhas & Miguez, 2002). Modelling results showed on-site detention potential effectiveness in flood control at an urban catchment in Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil.Key words
cell model; on-site detention; ultra-urban environments; urban floods