Fully distributed urban drainage models can be used to analyse and predict the behaviour of green urban drainage infrastructure such as swales, but they need to be calibrated for specific study sites. Using only drainage outflow measurements may not provide enough information to do this in an optimal way, so additional types of measurements have to be considered. This study identifies different approaches to including soil water content (SWC) observations in the calibration process and investigates how they affect parameter identifiability and the predictive uncertainty of the calibrated model. This is done using the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation methodology applied to a model of a large urban swale. It was found that setting initial conditions based on the SWC measurements improved the fit between observed and simulated SWC, but also reduced the accuracy of the simulated amount of infiltration. Including SWC observations allowed to identify one parameter (saturated moisture content of the swale bottom) that was not identifiable from outflow measurements alone. Including SWC observations in the derivation of predictive uncertainty bounds made those bounds narrower (more precise), but where SWC had been used to set initial conditions the uncertainty bound failed to capture the observations. It is concluded that SWC observations can provide useful information for the calibration of distributed urban drainage models.

The feasibility of simulating the hydrological response of a grass swale to runoff inflows was examined using the hydrological model Mike SHE and the available input data from 12 irrigation events mimicking runoff from block rainfalls. The test swale channel had a trapezoidal cross-section, bottom slope of 1.5%, length of 30 m, and was built in loamy fine sand. The irrigation events consisted in releasing two equal constant inflows to the swale: a concentrated longitudinal flow at the upstream end and a distributed lateral inflow along the swale side slope adjacent to the contributing drainage area. The total inflows approximated runoff from two events with return periods of 2 months and 3 years, respectively, for durations of 30 min. Irrigation experiments were done for two states of the initial soil moisture, dry or wet antecedent moisture conditions (AMC). Mike SHE has been extensively used on catchments of various sizes, but rarely for small stormwater management facilities and their detailed topography investigated in this study. The latter application required high spatial and temporal resolutions, with computational cells of 0.2 × 0.2 m and time steps as short as 0.6 s to avoid computational instabilities. For dominant hydrological processes, the following computational options in Mike SHE were chosen: Soil infiltration – the van Genuchten equation, unsaturated zone flow – the one-dimensional Richards equation, and overland flow – the diffusive wave approximation of the St. Venant equations. For study purposes, the model was calibrated for single events representing one of four combinations of low and high inflows, and dry and wet AMC, and then applied to the remaining 11 events. This was complemented by calibration for two events, representing high inflow on wet AMC and low inflow in dry AMC. The goodness of fit was statistically assessed for observed and simulated peak flows, hydrograph volumes, Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiencies (NSE), and soil water content (SWC) in swale soil layers. The best fit (NSE > 0.8) was obtained for high inflows and wet AMC (i.e., when the primary swale function is flow conveyance); the least fit was noted for low inflows and dry AMC, when the primary swale function is flow attenuation. Furthermore, this observation indicates the overall importance of correct modelling of the soil infiltration. The effects of spatial variation of SWC on the swale discharge hydrograph could not be confirmed from simulation results, but high topographical accuracy was beneficial for reproducing well the locations of the observed water ponding. No significant increases in simulated SWC at 0.3 m or greater depths were noted, which agreed with field observations. Overall, the results indicated that Mike SHE was effective in process-oriented small-scale modelling of grass swale flow hydrographs.

Grassed drainage swales, which represent common elements of urban green infrastructures, are designed for different soils, flow capacities, dimensions, slopes and vegetation. Their design is often based on local experience rather than technical guidelines, and consequently, the design and performance of grassed swales, with respect to flow capacity and stormwater management objectives may significantly vary from one jurisdiction to another. To improve this situation and reduce design uncertainties, a field study of grassed swales was conducted by assessing their hydrologic performance. A 30-m section of an urban grassed swale in sandy soils, located in the City of Luleå (Northern Sweden), was equipped with a mobile water supply system and instrumented for measuring swale flow characteristics. The water supply system comprised five containers (~ 1 m3 each) providing controlled longitudinal and lateral inflows into the tested swale section. These inflows were selected to mimic stormwater runoff from a typical drainage area. At the first test site, 14 rainfall events of 30- minute duration were simulated and the resulting swale flows and soil moisture conditions were measured. The experimental variables addressed included wet and dry antecedent conditions, and three inflow rates. The preliminary results indicate that the degree of swale inflow attenuation depended on the magnitude of runoff inflow, on the initial soil moisture conditions and that significant volumes of water can be stored and transmitted during the stormwater drainage process.

For fast emerging Asian megacities, knowledge of water resource conditions is indispensable for sustainable water balance management and planning. Urbanisation results in the sealing of surfaces to different degrees in relation to the urban densities and structures developed and ultimately to an alteration of the urban hydrograph. In recent decades urban flooding in Ho Chi Minh City has become one of the most pressing issues. To support the Ho Chi Minh City’s planning authorities, within the frame of this the research project TP. Ho Chi Minh, the rainfall-runoff regime of the southern Vietnamese metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City was investigated. On the basis of high resolution digital databases as well with a previously generated urban structure type map, a German water balance model ABIMO was used to calculate the long-term annual means of individual water balance components for the entire administrative area of the city. Current conditions and further time-series of future urban development scenarios as set out in the draft land use plan up to the year 2020/25 over static climate conditions were modelled. The results were mapped for each of the individual 16,282 land-use blocks of the city’s official land use plan and construed to planning recommendations. The results showed that for the current conditions from a total annual precipitation input of 1573 mm, 117 mm or approximately 7 % is unable to infiltrate or evaporate and converts into surface run-off. Evidence, that urbanization is one of the main cause of increased flooding, could be given by the finding that currently 212 million m3 and based on the simulation for the year 2020/2025 overland flow of 586 million m3 will occur. Finally on the basis of modelled results, a planning recommendation map was compiled displaying zones as planning priorities, targets and measures.