Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) Spatial Prioritisation through Global Sensitivity Analysis for Effective Urban Pluvial Flood Mitigation

Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) has attracted growing attention as a sustainable approach for mitigating pluvial flooding (also known as flash flooding), which is expected to increase in frequency and intensity under the impacts of climate change and urbanisation. However, spatial planning of WSUD is not an easy task, not only due to the complex urban environment, but also the fact that not all locations in the catchment are equally effective for flood mitigation. In this study, we developed a new WSUD spatial prioritisation framework that applies global sensitivity analysis (GSA) to identify priority subcatchments where WSUD implementation will be most effective for flood mitigation. For the first time, the complex impact of WSUD locations on catchment flood volume can be assessed, and the GSA in hydrological modelling is adopted for applications in WSUD spatial planning. The framework uses a spatial WSUD planning model, the Urban Biophysical Environments and Technologies Simulator (UrbanBEATS), to generate a grid-based spatial representation of catchment, and an urban drainage model, the U.S. EPA Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), to simulate catchment flooding. The effective imperviousness of all subcatchments was varied simultaneously in the GSA to mimic the effect of WSUD implementation and future developments. Priority subcatchments were identified based on their influence on catchment flooding computed through the GSA. The method was tested for an urbanised catchment in Sydney, Australia. We found that high priority subcatchments were clustering in the upstream and midstream of the main drainage network, with a few distributed close to the catchment outlets. Rainfall frequency, subcatchment characteristics, and pipe network configuration were found to be important factors determining the influence of changes in different subcatchments on catchment flooding. The effectiveness of the framework in identifying influential subcatchments was validated by comparing the effect of removing 6% of the Sydney catchment's effective impervious area under four WSUD spatial distribution scenarios. Our results showed that WSUD implementation in high priority subcatchments consistently achieved the largest flood volume reduction (3.5-31.3% for 1% AEP to 50% AEP storms), followed by medium priority subcatchments (3.1-21.3%) and catchmentwide implementation (2.9-22.1%) under most design storms. Overall, we have demonstrated that the proposed method can be useful for maximising WSUD flood mitigation potential through identifying and targeting the most effective locations.

Automated summary

In this study, a new Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) spatial prioritisation framework was developed using global sensitivity analysis (GSA) to identify priority subcatchments for effective flood mitigation. The framework combines the Urban Biophysical Environments and Technologies Simulator (UrbanBEATS) and the U.S. EPA Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to simulate flooding in an urbanised catchment. The GSA was used to vary the effective imperviousness of subcatchments and prioritize their influence on catchment flooding. The effectiveness of the framework was validated by comparing different WSUD spatial distribution scenarios in a Sydney catchment. The results showed that implementing WSUD in high priority subcatchments achieved the largest flood volume reduction, followed by medium priority subcatchments and catchmentwide implementation.