Date of Award

2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering

Department

Washkewicz College of Engineering

First Advisor

Kim, Ung Tae

Subject Headings

Civil Engineering

Abstract

Urbanization causes a serious impact on storm water systems by expansion of impervious surfaces. Low Impact Development (LID) is a technique growing in popularity to solve the issue of storm water management. However, to evaluate the benefits of LIDs is a difficult task due to realistic parametrization of LIDs and subcatchments for modeling. The goals of this study are: a) to provide a practical guideline to parameterize and simulate LIDs (bio-retention and rain barrels) in residential areas; and b) to evaluate the resulting effect on the current drainage system under various design storms. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Storm Water Management Model 5 (SWMM5) was used to simulate the hydrologic performance of LID controls and their effects on reducing direct runoff from a residential area, Klusner Avenue in Parma, Ohio. This study conceptualized the study site in reasonable detail, including house, garage, backyard, tree lawn, driveway, sidewalk, and street, so that the performance of LID controls could be identified easily. Specifically, a street catchment was carefully modeled using an open-conduit routing option, which simulated the street drainage systems more effectively. SWMM5 parameters were calibrated using the observed rainfall-runoff data which was collected before implementing LID practices at Klusner Avenue. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) had a value of 0.69 for the calibrated model which indicates a strong fit between the output and observed data. Finally, the calibrated model was used to add LID controls to evaluate its effects under various design storms, 1-year, 2-year, 5-year, 10-year, 25-year, and 50-year return periods. The results show that two types of LID controls, bio-retention cell and rain barrel installed in the study site reduced the total runoff volume from 9 to 13% and the peak flow by from 11 to 15% depending on rainfall intensities. The analysis of results suggested that the performance of LID controls should be based on not only their capacity and treatment area but also target design storm and unit cost.

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