URBAN STORMWATER DESIGN

CHAPTER 6
FLASH FLOOD
Past Drainage Practice and issues
• In Malaysia, the traditional approach widely practiced to manage
storm water design where allow developers to put in drains where
appropriate.

• The engineers job is only to determine drain size to comply with

drainage capacity

• Urban drainage practice is based on the 1975 DID Urban Drainage

Design Manual, “Planning and design Procedure No 1: Urban
Drainage Design Standard For Peninsular Malaysia.

• Rapid disposal approach as adopted in this manual has led to

increase in the occurrence of flash floods as a result of increase in
surface runoff, peak discharge, shorter flow duration and others.
• If the country continues to urbanize, the flood problem
continue to increase. (Zakaria & Ainan, 2000)

• Due to this problem, Department of Irrigation and Drainage

(DID) is taking a proactive step by introducing New Urban
Drainage Manual known as Strom Water Management Manual
for Malaysia (Manual Saliran Mesra Alam or MSMA)

• Effective from 1st January 2001 all new development in

Malaysia must comply with this new guideline which control
storm water from the aspect of quantity and quality runoff to
achieve zero development impact contribution.

• This new strategy will give a sustainable solution to mitigate

the existing flood problems but it also to prevent the
occurrence of such problem in the new area developed
URBAN STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
MANUAL FOR MALAYSIA
• The manual has 48 Chapters.
• It is divided into 9 parts
• The manual is published in
20 volumes
• The first 3 parts contain
background information on
environmental process and
storm water management
• The remaining parts contain
detailed information on
hydrology and hydraulic,
runoff quantity control,
sources and treatment runoff
quantity control, runoff quality
control and special storm
water applications
• The main focus of MSMA is to manage storm water
instead of draining it away as fast as possible

• This manual also considers the current existing problem

such as flash flood, river pollution, soil erosion, hill
development and etc.

• MSMA have a multiple objectives including to:

1. Ensure the safety of the public
2. Control nuisance flooding and provide for the safe
passage of less frequent and larger flood events
3. Stabilize the landform and control erosion
4. Optimize the land available for urban development
5. Minimize the environmental impact of urban runoff on
water quality
6. Enhance the urban landscape
Gross Pollutant Trap
Swale
Dry Pond
Wetland
 ESTIMATING PEAK FLOW

• Chapter 13 – Design Rainfall

• Chapter 14 – Flow Estimation and

Routing
ESTIMATING PEAK FLOW
 Rational Formula
 Select Design ARI (Average Recurrence Interval)

 Design Acceptance Criteria :

• The minor system is intended to collect and convey runoff from relatively
frequent storm events to minimise inconvenience and nuisance flooding.
• The major system is intended to safely convey runoff not collected by the
minor drainage system to waterways or rivers.
Major and Minor System
 RUNOFF ESTIMATION
– refer Chapter 14 – Flow Estimation and Routing

• Estimating Time of Concentration, tc

 The time of concentration is the flow travel time from the most hydraulically
remote point in the contributing catchment area to the point under study.

Time of Concentration, tc for small cacthment

 • Overland Flow time
Overland flow can occur on either grassed or paved surfaces.

From 14.4.2 Calculation of Flow Time …page 14-2

Design Chart 14.1 …page 14-25
• Roof Drainage Flow Time

• Kerbed Gutter Flow Time

• Channel Flow Time

• Pipe Flow Time

 DESIGN RAINFALL INTENSITIES
– refer Chapter 13 – Design Rainfall

• Determine Average Rainfall Intensity, RIt

1. The total storm rainfall depth at a point, for a given rainfall duration and ARI,
is a function of the local climate.
2. Rainfall depths can be further processed and converted into rainfall intensities
(intensity = depth/duration), which are then presented in IDF curves.
3. Users need to be aware of the limitations of these IDF curves ( see 13.2.4
IDF Curves for Selected Cities and Towns )
4. Local authorities are advised to find out from the DID to the availability of IDF
curves or coefficients for their respective areas, or to obtain local pluviometer
data for those wishing to conduct their own analysis
 RAINFALL INTENSITY-
DURATION-FREQUENCY (IDF)
 Design storm defines the rainfall intensity for a given frequency and
therefore affects the resulting runoff peak and volume

Runoff peak
Rainfall Intensity (mm/hr)

Frequency (year)

10yr
5yr
2yr

Duration (minutes)

 Current practice is to select the design storm duration as equal to or

longer than the time of concentration for the catchment (or some
minimum value when the time of concentration is short)
 IDF for SHORT DURATION
5 minutes to < 30 minutes

Rainfall Intensity (mm/hr)

Frequency (year)

10yr

5yr

2yr

30

Duration (minutes)
 IDF for FREQUENCY STORM
(Water quality design)
1 month (0.083 yr), 3 month (0.25 yr), 6 month
(0.5 yr) and 12 month (1 yr)
Rainfall Intensity (mm/hr)

Frequency (year)

0.5yr

0.25yr

0.083yr

30

Duration (minutes)
• Polynomial Approximation of IDF Curves ( see 13.2.6)

APPENDIX 13.A FITTED COEFFICIENTS FOR IDF CURVES FOR 35 URBAN

CENTRES …page 13-11
• IDF Values for Short Duration Storms (see 13.2.7)
• Figure 13.3 Values of 2P24h for use with Table 13.3(page 13-6)
• IDF Values for Frequent Storms(see 13.2.8)
Example 1
 To determine the design peak flow generated
from a minor drainage of medium density
residential area of 10 hectares in Kuala Lumpur.
Assume 80m of overland flow followed by 400m
of flow in an open drain. Catchment area average
slope = 0.5%
URBAN DRAINAGE SYSTEM
 Design Storm
Table 4.1 Design Storm ARIs for Urban Stormwater Systems
Type of Development Average Recurrence Interval (ARI) of Design
Storm (year)
(See Note 1) Quantity Quality
Minor Major System
System (see Note 2 and
3)
Open Space, Parks and Agricultural 1 up to 100 3 month ARI
Land in urban areas (for all types
of
development)

Residential:

Low density 2 up to 100

Medium density 5 up to 100

High density 10 up to 100

Commercial, Business and Industrial – 5 up to 100
Other than CBD
Commercial, Business, Industrial in 10 up to 100
Central Business District (CBD) areas of
Large Cities
  Drainage Reserves and geometry
C
300mm freeboard
Drainage Reserve Qminor
1 1
0.5 m Design flow width + freeboard 0.5 m 4 min 4 min
min min
Design flow width + freeboard

(a) ' Vee' Shaped

(a) Grassed Swale
C 300mm freeboard
Qminor
Drainage Reserve 1 1
4 min 1 1 4 min
50 50
1.5 m minimum 1.0 m

Batter Base Batter

Design flow width + freeboard

(b) Lined Open Drain

(b) Trapezoidal Shaped

Figure 26.1 Reserve Width for Open Drain Figure26.2 Recommended Grassed Swale Cross-
Sections
26.2.4 Freeboard
The depth of a grassed swale shall include a minimum
freeboard of 50 mm above the design storm water level in the
swale.
26.2.5 Velocities and Grades
 To prevent sedimentation and vegetative
growth, the minimum average flow velocity
shall not be less than 0.6 m/s.
 The maximum average flow velocity shall
not exceed 4 m/s. The average flow velocity
in a grassed swale shall not exceed 2 m/s. If
this is not practical, an underground pipeline,
lined open drain, or grass reinforcement
system should be provided.
Example
Determine the size of a lined rectangular drain tp
convey a 5-year ARI minor system design flow from
a proposed 3 hectare bungalow development in
Kuala Lumpur. The post development time of
concentration, tc at the development outlet is
estimated to be 20 minutes.