Studying the impact of construction dewatering discharges to the urban storm drainage network(s) of Doha city using infoworks integrated catchment modeling (ICM)

Abstract

The discharge of construction dewatering flows to the storm drainage network for disposal is a common activity in Qatar. The Dupuit empirical approach was utilized to establish various hypothetical dewatering scenarios on the basis of site classifications, which were modeled on 4 Case Study Areas of Doha's Existing Surface Drainage Network in order to study the impact of dewatering discharge against an established baseline. The simulations were undertaken using InfoWorks Integrated Catchment Modeling (ICM) software for critical and non-critical rainfall events. The results indicated significant localized flooding in excess of the baseline conditions for scenarios exceeding 0.5 m3/sec flows, while individual catchments demonstrated variations and sensitivities on the basis of catchment properties and rainfall events. It is evident that dewatering discharge under unpredictable rainfall events poses various levels of risk to the city's infrastructure, which is further exacerbated due to the massive scale of construction activity in the country and the rising ground water table in Greater Doha Area basin.