STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE FOR FLASH FLOOD MANAGEMENT AND SUDS MASTER PLAN NEEDS FOR THE CITY OF BARRANQUILLA

Abstract

The city of Barranquilla has had one of the biggest challenges of stormwater management in Latin America. The city lacks from conventional stormwater conveying and the main streets become dangerous urban streams with flash floods that put the population at risk every year. Urban streets suddenly convey flow rates of up to 100 m3/s with velocities greater than 9 m/s. However, in the last 5 years, the local government has implemented an unprecedented project of channeling about 20 km of main streets with flash floods issues, investing more than US$ 200 million dollars. The city has had an important urban transformation in several areas and has significantly reduced the risk associated with flash floods in main streets. However, this effort was mainly focused on channeling and no watershed management measured has been taken into account so far. Based on hydrological risk analysis and the identification of runoff water quality issues, a stormwater master plan based on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) becomes a need and a great opportunity for the city. This master plan will allow mitigating flash floods in areas which still lack from stormwater conveying systems and improving the water quantity and quality indicator for new urban areas. This document shows the historical evolution of stormwater management in Barranquilla and the arguments for implementing SUDS as a part of a master plan to solve and prevent urban floods and improve runoff water quality in the future.