Impact of Green Infrastructure on Flood Prevention in Urban Area

Abstract

Intensities of short-term rainfalls are the basic design parameters for the dimensioning and design of urban sewerage systems. However, in connection with climate change, there is a change in rainfall characteristics, which are represented i. a. also by increase of the short-term rainfall intensity. This means an increased hydraulic load on urban sewerage systems, which can be resolved by increase of the sewerage system capacity or by reducing the of rainwater inflow into the sewerage system. Currently, within the framework of adaptation measures for climate change mainly the second option is preferred, i.e. reduction of the inflow into the sewerage system. This has to be realized prioritizing the green adaptation measures (green infrastructure). The paper deals with impact of the of green infrastructure implementation in urban sewerage system on the operational safety of the urban sewerage system from the point of view of the floods occurrence in the urbanized area. As shown by the results of the model study, the biggest effectiveness of green infrastructure in terms of preventing the occurrence of flooding is shown in case of short-term rainfalls with a lower return period (1-2 years). With increase of the return period (up to 10 years), the effectiveness of green infrastructure in terms of the occurrence of flooding decreases.