Dynamics in Urban Development, Population Growth and their Influences on Urban Water Infrastructure

AbstractFor a comprehensive adaptation of urban water infrastructure to constantly changing and evolving systems a detailed simulation of the dynamics in city development is crucial. Several scenarios are developed within model boundaries to take a consequences of growth into account. For simulating the parceling of available areas and placement of buildings and population a programming toolbox (http://dynamind-toolbox.org) developed at the University of Innsbruck is used. Within this toolbox it is easy to set up a dynamic, cyclic process of automated city growth. Further the software enables for a later generation and adaptation of urban drainage systems and performance analysis. First results show that population data alone are not sufficient to describe the effects of city development on urban water infrastructure. For a comparison of the simulated urban development scenarios SWMM simulations are performed to show differences in runoff and flooding according to the developed areas. Results show that an increase of effective impervious area results in a twice as high increase in total flooding volume if no adaptation or extension of the sewer system takes place. The only slight increase in flooding junctions confirms the necessity for a thorough planning and adaptation of the drainage system