Sustainable Drainage Systems Hydrological Sensitivity to Precipitation Changes

Considering sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) as effective strategies for mitigating urban flooding, this research specifically aims at showing if and how these infrastructures would be affected in the future from possible rainfall changes. In this study, a drainage model involving SuDS, covering about the 8.3% of a 290 ha catchment area and previously set up using Storm Water Management Model 5 (SWMM5), was tested under historical and future synthetic precipitation inputs with varying return periods to detect variations of runoff peak flows and volumes discharged due to future precipitation changes. Findings suggest that SuDS are sensitive to rainfall changes, especially under lower return period rainfall (two years), reaching, respectively, the 334% and 170% runoff peak flows and volumes increases.