Climate change adaptation through optimal stormwater capture measures

Abstract

Urban water management has become more challenging and expensive in the global change context. The major shortcomings of existing research on water management systems are the neglect of uncertainty in climate change, inadequate knowledge of infrastructural response sensitivity, the lack of holistic water management framework and limited consideration of local aspects in adaptation strategies formulation. The main goals of this research are to (1) analyse climate change impact on extreme precipitation patterns, and (2) conduct iterative stormwater simulation for alternative on-site stormwater capture measures for climate change adaptation and sustainable urban development. Impacts of climate change were investigated by considering precipitation projections of multiple GCMs (Global Climate Models) over Yato Watershed, Tokyo. Precipitation IDF curves of 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100-year return periods for present and future climates revealed that, for all return periods and durations, the precipitation intensities are significantly greater for the future climate than the present climate. The HEC-HMS tool enabled simulation of flood hydrographs for current and future climate conditions. The simulated results indicated that there would be an increase of 11–20% in peak discharge at the Yato Watershed outlet at the end of this century. It was observed that Kinuta Park is in a strategic location which can be used to construct a storage facility of 180,163.14 m3 for reducing flood events. The study proposes maintaining the stability of the water cycle of the urban catchment as an alternative for sustainable water management. Climate change, GCM Rainfall IDF, Runoff, Stormwater, Yato Watershed