A Comparative Study of 2-Dimensional Hydraulic Modeling Software, Case Study: Sorrento Valley, San Diego, California

Abstract

Sorrento West business park, a business campus for biotechnology and scientific research, is a flood prone hotspot in San Diego, California. Roselle Street and Dunhill Street experience flooding multiple times a year due to overtopping of adjacent channels, including Carroll Canyon Creek, Los Peñasquitos Creek and Flintkote Channel. A flood significantly affects the businesses and people of the area, trapping employees and customers inside businesses, forcing the shutdown of the Coaster service and access to the I-5 freeway, and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage. Previous one-dimensional hydraulic studies conducted on the flood capacity of these channels show that they only have capacity to contain the 5 y storm event. This study incorporates two different two-dimensional hydraulic modeling techniques to supplement previous one-dimensional hydraulic studies. These two models were prepared with the United States Army Corps of Engineers Hydrological Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (USACE HEC–RAS) and PCSWMM. In addition, a sensitivity analysis of the two two-dimensional models was performed to compare the response of the models to the research assumptions.