Work Package 3 (WP3) of the WATERUN project is supported by the Centre for Environmental Biotechnology, part of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Germany. Our working group focuses on developing tools and models to plan water infrastructure in water-sensitive regions affected by climate change. Specifically, our goal within the WATERUN project is to develop a planning tool for stormwater (SW) management at the city block level, using a decentralised approach.
To achieve this, we will use the Management of Urban Stormwater at Block-Level (MUST-B) approach, which utilises hydraulic models to estimate the maximum capacity for reducing the Urban Water Runoff (UWR). Our novel approach involves defining the potential of decentralised management of SW at the block level through Blue Green Infrastructure (BGI) in urban areas. This approach will be tested in three case studies in Santiago, Aarhus, and Amman.
The planning tool we develop will allow for managing SW through decentralised systems at the city block level, reducing UWR and Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) through on-site retention, infiltration, storage, and evapotranspiration. The ultimate goal is to completely avoid the transport of SW and pollution outside the urban areas. Our main task is to set the methods for modelling the reduction of pollution runoff by decentralised SW management at the city block level.
In the sub-project, we have two primary tasks. The first is developing a modelling database for the case studies, which provides a common data infrastructure for the modelling tools. The second is developing the planning tool, which encompasses modelling the reduction of urban pollution runoff and reducing CSO and pollution discharge to natural bodies.
Figure 1: Simulation result depicting the current situation (left) and the potentially reduced UWR through Blue Green Infrastructure (Right) for a 30-year rainfall event (Khurelbaatar et al. 2021).
Our scientists, Ganbaatar Khurelbaatar, Daneish Despot, and Jan Friesen, are responsible for developing the modelling tool. Overall, our organisation’s main objective is to develop a planning tool that utilises decentralised SW management to reduce the impact of climate change on water resources and protect our environment.
Authors: Ganbaatar Khurelbaatar, Daneish Despot, and Jan Friesen
Date: 27.02.2023