CEB806 – Urban Stormwater and Environmental Management

Introduction to urbanization & effects on water cycle

HYDROLOGIC CYCLE is the continuous movement of water on above or below the surface of
land through the process of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, interception, infiltration,
percolation, transportation, runoff and storage.
 Due to urbanization, as a result, the natural hydrologic cycle shifts from an infiltration
and evapotranspiration-based system (Natural Hydrologic cycle) to a surface runoff
dominated system known as Urban Hydrologic cycle.
 In urban hydrologic systems, instead of water running its natural course, streams that
were once natural may now be channelized into artificially modified or constructed
stream beds.
 Runoff from roofs and street surfaces may be diverted to the storm sewer system through
storm drains, pipes and ditches, creating various types of storm sewer systems.
The process of urbanisation results in
 high catchment imperviousness (increased volume of runoff),
 fast runoff (increased speed of runoff) and
 quick catchment response to critical rainfall of reduced duration (why???), all of which
contribute to increased runoff flows
(why???) Making the catchment more sensitive (responsive) to rain events of shorter duration and
higher intensity, and therefore producing higher specific runoff rates, is less obvious and deserves
further discussion

 Theoretically, for a given homogeneous catchment, the critical rainfall producing the greatest
runoff is that whose duration, td, is equal to the time of concentration of the catchment, tc. Indeed,
if the duration is shorter, (td <tc), the whole catchment area does not contribute fully at the same
time to the flow at the catchment outlet. On the other hand, for a given return
period, the shorter the rain duration, the higher its average intensity. For that reason, shorter
response times result in shorter times of concentration, and greater intensities of the critical
rainfall.

Source: Sowby, Robert B. 2014. The Urban Water Cycle. Posted on Water Currents on March 19, 2014. National Geographic.

Swetha Thammadi, Lecturer, SBCE, FNU

 CEB806 – Urban Stormwater and Environmental Management

Water Balance Equation in a Watershed or Reservoir

In a natural system,
Precipitation − Runoff − Net Groundwater Outflow − Evapotranspiration = Storage

where the net groundwater outflow is groundwater inflow minus outflow, and all terms are
measured in volumes over the time period of interest.
In an urban system,
Precipitation − Runoff − Net Groundwater Outflow + Net Potable Water Imported + Net
Stormwater Imported + Net Wastewater Imported − Evapotranspiration = Storage
Numerical
Challenges in Urban Hydrology
 Complex system of systems
 Population growth
 Aging Infrastructure
 Climate change

Figure Courtesy of U.S. EPA: http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/images/impacts-adaptation/WaterCycleChanges.jpg

Swetha Thammadi, Lecturer, SBCE, FNU

 CEB806 – Urban Stormwater and Environmental Management

What are solutions?

 Green infrastructure, gardens, design, sustainability, reduce-reuse-recycle, recovery,
conservation, restoration, rainwater harvesting, sustainability, etc.
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
(World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future - Brundtland report)

Sustainability concepts
 Cradle-to-Cradle – topple cradle-to-grave
 Triple Bottom Line – Economic, Social and Environmental parameters – performance
measurement framework - 3 spheres of sustainability
 Systems Thinking

Global Social
systems systems

Sustainable
Regional
water
systems
system

Local
systems

 Can you think of ways that lack of snowpack affects society in major U.S. West cities?
 What factors account for large amount of rainfall that is leading to urban flooding?
Climate vs Weather
Urban Climate
 Urban Heat Island (UHI)
 Land use hydrology
 Clouds and precipitation
 Nitrogen and Carbon cycles

Swetha Thammadi, Lecturer, SBCE, FNU

 CEB806 – Urban Stormwater and Environmental Management

Figure courtesy of NOAA Climate Program Office: http://cpo.noaa.gov/sites/cpo/About_CPO/ac4_nitrogencycle.jpg

 Can cities effect rainfall distribution i.e, can they create/modify rains/storms?
o Atmospheric destabilization – UHI
o Increased aerodynamic roughness
o Modified microphysical and dynamic processes

Swetha Thammadi, Lecturer, SBCE, FNU