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Background The SAM project is a 3-year DTI funded Collaborative Research and Development project under the DTI Design, Modelling and Simulation Technology Programme in the Modern Built Environment area. The work undertaken as part of this project will support the need for a systems-based management approach to urban flooding highlighted in the DEFRA strategy, ‘Making Space for Water’. This £1.5M project is 50% funded by DTi and is being undertaken by 14 partners across the drainage industry, with HR Wallingford undertaking the project co-ordinator role. The project partners are listed below: Project Objectives The aim of the DTI SAM project is to develop a Risk-Based procedure and tools to support Integrated Urban Drainage Design and Management, for use by drainage practitioners, including tools and guidance on the application of spatially varied rainfall. It is anticipated that a risk-based approach will be used at a strategic planning level to identify and prioritise flooding areas and highlight critical assets with respects to flooding. The application of the risk-based approach would then be followed by more detailed analysis of the priority areas and assets including the evaluation of potential intervention works, as part of the detailed design process. Also relevant to the assessment of the urban flood system is the ability to apply spatially varied rainfall within the modelling process and to understand when this could have a significant impact on the decision-making process. The project will investigate the issues involved in applying spatially varied rainfall and provide guidance in its application. The research and development into the risk-based procedure will address the key requirements that need to be met to enable such an approach to be adopted. These requirements include methods for risk attribution, development of effective search and sampling algorithms, guidance on appropriate data collection and preparation, and investigation into methods for handling uncertainty and the dimensionality of spatial-temporal rainfall and other boundary conditions. The procedure and supporting tools will be demonstrated and evaluated on two pilot studies located in Glasgow and Bradford as part of the project. Benefits The DTI SAM project will focus on meeting the needs of the urban flooding community in developing improved techniques for use in the design and management of urban flooding. In meeting these needs, a key emphasis of the project is to provide effective and practical procedures and tools for use within the drainage industry on completion of the project. The project will develop a systematic risk-based approach that will enable strategic management decisions to be made on the basis of consequences (change in flood risk and estimated annual damages). This approach is significantly different to current practice which adopts a standards-based approach, in which drainage is designed to meet a specified level of performance. To support the introduction of this procedure, the project will also outline the changes needed to existing software packages to enable the approach to be applied, including definition of the management and procedural tools required. The project will also develop a rapid overland flow model that can be linked to a drainage model, including the functionality to quantify resulting flood damage. This will enable a large number of model runs and associated damage assessments to be undertaken within a reasonable computational time and to an appropriate level of detail. In support of the more detailed level of analysis required at the detailed design stage, a complex overland flow model will also be produced to enable a more accurate calculation of flood depths, velocities and a more accurate assessment of the economical benefits of alternative intervention works. This project will also provide guidance on the capability of currently available rainfall applications and will produce a software tool to support the sampling, processing and extraction of rainfall ‘events’ from continuous spatially varying time-series rainfall for use in model applications. Future research needs in this area will also be identified. The benefits described above will support UK practice and consultants in enhancing their international position in flood management technology and lead to more effective and appropriate use of available resources in the management of urban flood risks. The potential benefits will be demonstrated on two pilot studies. Scientific and Technical Advances The project will make significant advances in the following scientific and technical areas:
Project Tasks The project is divided into 10 key tasks, grouped into the following topics:
A Project Overview report is available which provides details of the activities being undertaken within each task. |
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