Progress towards sustainable stormwater managementField monitoring of permeable pavements

Resumen

The use of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in cities is becoming increasingly widespread. Partly, because of concerns about climate change and the associated flood risks, and partly, because of increasingly strict requirements regarding the quality of discharges and the insufficient capacity of our wastewater treatment plant systems. However, there is still much uncertainty in their design and implementation: costs, life-cycle, modelling, etc. One of the most widely used tools in the management of urban drainage networks is hydrological-hydraulic modelling. Almost all water utilities have models that allow them to understand the operation of the network, prioritize investments, and estimate the impact of changes in the network. However, these models can only be realistic (and useful) if we provide real data for their calibration. In this sense, very little information is available to integrate sustainable urban drainage systems into the models. This research consists of the field monitoring of both rainfall events and SUDS behaviour. Specifically, the SUDS technique analyzed are permeable pavements. For this, the first step is the construction of a 1-1 scale model, integrated in the urbanization of the city. Then, a monitoring system is designed to collect data continuously. Obtained data shows not only the effectiveness of the monitoring site for gathering SUDS data, but also the ability of SUDS to control precipitation. Also, collected data allows evaluating the behaviour of the permeable pavement under real operating conditions and will be used later to carry out the calibration of the model. This calibration is fundamental to properly apply rainfall-runoff models and, therefore, to better understand SUDS performance and adequately plan the future implementation of new SUDS.