Implementation of measures to mitigate the risk of pluvial flooding in urban areas

Pluvial floods have become common in recent times due to climate change leading to heavy rainfall, and high rate of urbanization, preventing the natural infiltration of water into the ground. Within this work, measures are selected, designed and implemented, which consider all the relevant stakeholders and other environmental limitations, with the aim of mitigating pluvial floods caused by heavy rainfall in urban areas. Lohbrugge, an urban region situated in Hamburg, Germany, is used as the study area in which the flood investigation is carried out and adequate measures to curb pluvial flooding are implemented and assessed using the ArcGIS software. The measures selected and implemented include Green Roofs, Roof Catchment Rain Water Harvesting Systems, Sewer Grate Inlet, Retention Basins, Swales and the Dredging Measure, through the use of the delineation tools in the ArcGIS software. Results obtained show that the Dredging Measure had the most significant impact on the mitigation of the potential pluvial flooding, with a 100-year rainfall event data corresponding to a heavy rainfall used for analysis. Other measures implemented showed limited capacity to curb pluvial flooding under heavy rainfall conditions. It was concluded that urban areas should have adequate flood mitigation measures incorporated in their design and planning, to help curb flooding in anticipation of heavy rainfall, while more research need to be carried out to develop state-of-the-art technologies to further combat pluvial flooding in urban areas.