Effects of LID-Based Urban Designs on Water Balance

Abstract

Low impact development (LID) has received significant attention in supplementing urban drainage designs. This study demonstrates the effects of LID-based urban designs on water balance components for an urban catchment. Two LID-based urban designs (A, B) are simulated for short term (E1) and long term (E2) periods and the effects of the various designs on different water balance components are assessed. The goal of the study is to demonstrate the performance of the designs to realize the sponge city concept. For the intensive short event, scenario A with 15% LID is not effective whereas scenario B with 49% LID is highly effective. For the longer period, both scenarios are highly effective in replicating sponge city concept. In addition, the A scenario possesses a potential for producing sponge city concept for rain events for return periods lower than 100 years.