Drainage inlets efficiency and its impact on pluvial flooding hazard evaluation uncertainty

Flooding events in urban areas occur quite frequently as a consequence of rain events of lower intensity than the design one, even in case of correct network dimensioning. Inlets are in those cases the critical nodes, and efficient drainage is only ensured when care is taken on their appropriate design and positioning within the pluvial flood-prone areas. Classical approach for design and position of these hydraulic structures can result in high level of uncertainty in defining properly risk levels in urban areas. Further, evaluation of flood hazard in urban areas is made even more difficult if one considers that pluvial flooding can be caused by storm events characterised by a low return t…

Pluvial flooding in urban areas: the role of surface drainage efficiency

Pluvial flooding in urban areas: the role of surface drainage efficiency

Pluvial flooding in urban areas may derive from the limited or temporarily reduced efficiency of surface drainage, even when the underlying storm sewers are properly designed. This study focuses on the impact of uncertainties in the operational condition of the surface drainage system on pluvial flood hazard. The flood propagation model FLURB-2D is implemented on a selected study area in the town of Genoa (Italy). Synthetic hyetographs based on the Chicago and bivariate copula methods with suitable return periods are used as input. While simulating the design rainfall, inlet operational conditions are varied stochastically using a Monte Carlo approach. Results confirm that microtopography h…