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Figure 1 provides a schematic overview of Urbanwb model with its fundamental elements included. Under this conceptual framework, major hydrological dynamics in an urban water system can be quickly and indicatively modelled modeled to provide users with a general idea of the water quantity distribution and how the water system behaves under certain conditions.
Below you find a brief introduction of the major components of the Urbanwb model. Chapter 2 describes these components into much more detail.
Notes
- The Urbanwb model is based on a Dutch urban area in a polder system (Figure 3) with a controlled target water level. However it can also be applied in other areas than polders. In those cases the target water level is the applied drainage water level of that area.
- The open water area is an essential part of the Urbanwb model. All excess water in the urban area first flows to the open water area, before it is discharged from the urban area (except for the water of the mixed sewer system that flow to the WWTP). Therefore the open water area size always has to be larger than 0.
- In case an urban area is modeled that contains no open water, an open water area has to be added to the model artificially (advised is to add in those cases an open water area size of a few percent of the total urban area).
1.2 Major components
In the Urbanwb, the land use area is divided into:
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2.8 Open Water (required area > 0)
Open Water in the Urbanwb model refers to all controlled Open Water bodies, e.g. ditches, canals and ponds. In the Urbanwb model the open water has a fixed target level. Above this level, water will be discharged to outside water, limited by a user defined discharge capacity. In the Urbanwb model, the minimum open water level is the defined target water level. If evaporation losses result in water level below the target level, water will be let in (with unlimited capacity) from outside water to maintain the target water level. Open Water can be deemed as an abstract term reflecting system storage capacity. By assumption, all runoff from Unpaved and all sewer overflow into the street flow directly to the Open Water. Also, sewer system outflow and groundwater drainage will recharge the Open Water. During simulation, under successive heavy rain events, Open Water level may exceed the target level due to insufficient storage capacity and discharge capacity, indicating there is excessive water that the urban water system cannot handle. This can represent all kinds of real urban flood phenomena. In the current version of the Urbanwb model water above surface elevation level cannot flow (directly) to the other surface areas and cause flooding in these areas. Hence the maximum water level in the Open Water is not limited. The storage height above the target Open Water level is calculated to understand the storage requirements of the water system. Maximum storage height on Open Water for a certain flood event multiplied with the Open Water area reflects the required storage capacity for the total study area for that event. To sum up, Open Water component is an abstract recipient water body that indicates the required storage capacity of the system. Figure 13 shows the schematic overview of the Open Water.
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Land use at or above surface level are divided into 5 components, namely Paved Roofs (buildings), Closed Paved (roads, etc.), Open Paved (pavements, parkings, etc.), Unpaved (grass land, etc.) and Open Water (ditches, canals, ponds, etc.). The fractions of the five land use types should sum up to 100%. The minimum required size of the open water area is larger than 0. In addition, the total area [m2] of the study area is required input. Besides, for paved areas (PR, CP, OP), three additional types of fractions have to be defined:
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