Urban Drainage and Sewerage I – EPA-SWMM design

exercise
Case study: Porto Alegre Municipality, Brazil

Porto Alegre is the capital city of Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul. Porto
Alegre itself has a population of 1.3 million inhabitants. It covers an area of 470 square
kilometres, 40 per cent of which is urban and 60 per cent rural. The Areia basin is located
in the north of the city. It covers an area of 20,85 km2, of which approximately half
corresponds to the basin of Arroio da Areia, i.e. about 11,7 km2 and the rest belongs to
the Airport polder. The Arroio da Areia has an extension of 5,4 km and it descends 121
meter to the pumping station Silvio Brum.

The basin is naturally drained through the main stream Arroio da Areia that receives
water from various smaller canals along its course, among others the Canal Assis Brasil,
Carneiro da Fontoura, Menna Barreto and Cerro Azul. The drainage originates from six
springs in the mounts Rio Branco and Petropolis.

The main drainage network runs in general below the street grid, except for a small part
that intersects a housing block and passes under the foundations. The drainage system in
the basin of Arroio da Areia can be divided into two distinct systems: one drained on the
basis ofgravity and the other drained by the pumping station Silvio Brum. The areas with
a level above 8,13 meter are drained by closed conduits, while the pumping station drains
an area of 139,2 ha that is below the level of 8,13 meter. In the end the drainage from the
upstream basin flows inside a pressure pipe (which is located below the airport lanes) up
to the Jacui Delta. A pumping station serves to drain the lowest basin (‘Pôlder
Aeroporto’). In the entire basin with the exception of Higienópolis the rainwater as well
as the waste water is removed through one system of conduits.

The actual capacity of the urban drainage in some parts of the Areia basin is not enough
to discharge the upstream increase in flood peak and volume as a result of the
urbanization process. The heaviest inundations happen on the intersection of the roads
‘Nilo Peçanha’ and ‘Texeira’. On this point that is the lowest of the region the drainage
system, which transports the water to the ‘Arroio the Areia’, overflows and inundation
levels can reach one meter. Previous floods had resulted in damage to property and even
in the loss of life.
Background
The Municipality of Porto Alegre has an urban development plan, which has its drainage
system as an important component. The objective of the exercise is to find the required
expansion of the drainage system to accommodate increased storm water flow due to the
future urban expansion.

A simple map of the part of the drainage network involved in this study, overlaid with the
street map is provided as an image.

Exercise

Design Storm
Objective: To compute a design storm for the area.

The recommended Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curve for the area is given by the
following equation:

where i is intensity in mm/h, t duration in min, and T is the return period in years. Use
the alternating block method to compute 10 year design rainstorm for the area. Plot this
storm as a bar chart.
Catchment Properties
Objective: To compute various catchment properties for each sub-catchment.

The following tables and figures give the information on various sub-catchments of the
area. Tabulate the values of catchment properties needed to run SWMM model based on
SCS curve number method.

Impervious Fraction

Maximum allowed population densities (hab/ha)

The sub-basins A, B, C and E fall within the area with 175 hab/ha region.
 Impervious Fraction

Population Density (ha/ha)

Empirical relationship between population density and impervious fraction for

the city

Compute the approximate value of impervious fraction.

Infiltration Properties

(At this point you will need to install EPA-SWMM in your computer. Download it from
http://www.epa.gov/ednnrmrl/models/swmm/index.htm and install)

Municipality engineers use the SCS curve number method for the computation of
infiltration loss and it is recommended we use the same method in this task. The soil type
for the area falls between type C and type D of SCS tables. Using the data given in the
SCS soil type table (it is provided in EPA-SWMM help) draw a graph of Curve Number
against impervious fraction. (Note: Catchments under consideration are completely
residential)

Use your graph to compute a curve number value suitable for the analysis.

Other Properties of Sub-Catchments

There are certain sub catchment parameters that are difficult to give a value based on the
physical properties of the catchment by a straightforward means. Examples are the
characteristic width of overland flow, the slope and the roughness values involved in the
non-linear reservoir routing model that computes the catchment outflow. While it is
always possible to recommend a relative magnitude of these values (e.g. for a long strip
catchment where slope is in lengthwise direction, the flow width should be smaller
compared to a catchment of similar area of a square shape.)

In serious design computations such values should always be examined during model
calibration, provided that runoff data for known rainfall events are available. However,
for the present problem, as in the case of many small-scale engineering computations, no
such data is available.

Population Densities and areas

Sub
basin Density Area
[inhab/ha] [km2]
A1 46.00 0.338
A2 72.47 0.969
A3 51.62 0.507
A4 39.19 0.300
A5 21.57 0.255
B1A 41.30 0.280
B1B 41.30 0.653
B2 66.63 0.273
B3 93.40 0.154
E1 0.00 0.349
E2 0.00 0.121

Computing characteristic width of overland flow:

Characteristic width of the overland flow path for sheet flow runoff (feet or meters). An initial estimate
of the characteristic width is given by the sub-catchment area divided by the average maximum
overland flow length. The maximum overland flow length is the length of the flow path from the inlet
to the furthest drainage point of the sub-catchment. Maximum lengths from several different possible
flow paths should be averaged. These paths should reflect slow flow, such as over pervious surfaces,
more than rapid flow over pavement, for example. Adjustments should be made to the width parameter
to produce good fits to measured runoff hydrographs.

Sub- Approx. Geometry Flow Length* (m) Slope (%)

Catchment
A1 Channel 1: 900 4.13
Channel 2: 700
A2 Channel 1: 800 4.01

A3 Channel 1: 720 4.28

Channel 2: 615
Channel 3: 834

A4 Channel 1: 548 4.09

A5 Channel 1: 500
Channel 2:600

B1A Channel 1: 1912 3.01

B1B Channel 1: 3.18

B2 Channel 1: 836 3.30

B3 Channel 1: 802 2.99

E1 Channel 1: 278 1.75

E2 Channel 1:507 1.95

Total length from upstream most point to the pour point.

Use the manning’s roughness values for watersheds as: Impervious 0.01, Pervious 0.1,
Depression storages as 0.5mm and 1.5mm respectively for impervious and pervious
fractions.
The Drainage network
Objective: To construct the drainage network in SWMM

The backdrop image shows how the drains are connected. Except T5 T9 and T8 all other
drains are open. Following table summarize the conduit properties and where the each
sub basin contributes to.

Basins
Pipes pouring
In on Conduit
Section Length Slope Parellel Unit Dimensions Roughness upstream shape
W
∆L [m] [m/m] [m] h or D [m]
Basin
A
T1-1 242 0.038 1 0.80 0.020 A1 Circ.
T1-2 242 0.038 1 0.80 0.020 Circ.
T2-1 288 0.019 1 0.80 0.020 A2 Circ.
T2-2 288 0.019 1 0.80 0.020 Circ.
T2-3 288 0.019 1 0.80 0.020 Circ.
T3-1 428 0.016 3 0.80 0.020 A3 Circ.
T3-2 342 0.015 2 1.00 0.020 Circ.
T4-1 117 0.045 1 1.00 0.020 A4, A5 Circ.
T4-2 117 0.045 1 1.00 0.020 Circ.
T4-3 60 0.045 1 1.00 0.020 Circ.
Basin
B
T6 870 0.018 1 1.00 0.020 B2, B1B Circ.
T7 584 0.014 1 1.50 0.020 B3, B1A Circ.
Basin E
Rect.
T5 710 0.011 1 3.00 3.00 0.050 E1 Open
Rect.
T8 210 0.027 1 2.50 1.50 0.050 Open
Rect.
T9-1 187 0.005 1 3.00 3.50 0.035 E2 Open
Specify Model Parameters
Objective: Provide required model data like rainfall.

Steps:
1. Create a rain gauge object and assign your design rainfall
2. Associate the rain gauge object to all the sub catchments.
3. Switch off the groundwater flow and water quality computations.
4.

Running your model

Objective: Decide on simulation parameters like routing method, runoff time step, etc.
and run the model; to obtain and analyze the results.

Steps:
1. First investigate all the model parameters and make sure that they represent the
values you intend them to. Since SWMM produce default values for each
parameter, it is quite easy to make a mistake.
2. Select full dynamic equation as routing method and set the computation time step
to 5 minutes.
3. Run the simulation and examine the simulation report. Discuss your observations.
4. Examine the simulation results.
5. Adjust the time-step to a suitable value. Justify your selection.
6. Run the simulation and find the flooding locations.

Revise the design

Objective: Re-size the conduits so that there will be no flooding for the 10year storm.

1. By trial and error find the sizes of pipes that will completely eliminate flooding in
the system for the 10 year storm.
Note: Do not select larger-than-necessary pipes in consideration for cost.
Appendix: Alternating block method for computing design
storms