City Growth and Urban Drainage Alternatives:

Sustainability Challenge
Marcelo Gomes Miguez 1; Osvaldo Moura Rezende 2; and Aline Pires Veról 3

Abstract: Since the 1970s, growing concerns about urban development’s effects on the natural environment have been prompting efforts to
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find more sustainable solutions for the problems arising from the built environment. In this context, this work discusses the need to integrate
innovative stormwater drainage practices with the urban planning process, especially regarding the limitation associated with the increase of
impervious surfaces, while trying to handle the runoff generated by the urban sprawl. The interaction between urban growth and stormwater
management is investigated, using a case study in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro to illustrate the main findings. To fulfill this
objective, the present flooding scenario for this area is modified under two premises: considering a traditional drainage system approach,
focusing on channelization measures, and a distributed stormwater management approach, based on the sustainable urban drainage system
(SUDS) concepts. Then, these two solutions are tested for their effectiveness under three different scenarios of future urban growth and land-
use changes, ranging from uncontrolled urbanization to planned urban growth with land-use control. The capacity of these two approaches to
maintain their design functions is verified for the proposed future urban patterns. The quantitative evaluation of urban flooding prospective
scenarios is supported by mathematical modeling. From the results of the conducted simulations, one can confirm the crucial importance
of land-use planning in the urban flood control process. Decentralized stormwater controls, although more resilient than traditional
channelization measures, tend to fail in the long term if land-use planning is not properly addressed. A key element for flood control
is the integration of drainage solutions with urban development, in a systemic way and considering the basin scale as the planning and
design reference. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000219. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Urban drainage; Stormwater management; Land-use planning and runoff generation; Sustainable urban development.

Introduction be protected (Kirby 2005). This type of solution proved to be

adequate for a long while, because it was able to solve problems
The presence of water has always been an important factor in city locally, usually fulfilling sanitation goals.
development. Concerns about drinking water, waste conveyance However, the spread of the urbanization process, with the con-
and urban flooding, among others, have always been impetuses sequent change of the natural drainage courses, caused increased
for efforts to make cities healthier. stormwater peak flows to lower-lying areas (Miguez et al. 2009a;
Specifically regarding urban flooding, which is the main con- Gómez et al. 2011; Zhou et al. 2011; da Silveira and de Oliveira
cern of this study, this type of event can cause serious economic 2013), requiring new interventions in the drainage network for the
and social losses, producing impacts in several aspects of city life, readjustment of its hydraulic capacity, according to the city’s
ranging from risk to health, public and private economic losses, and growth, leading to an increasing spiral of investment needs.
urban infrastructure disruption (Miguez and Magalhães 2010). This context led to the development of a new approach, more com-
The traditional approach to urban flood control design considers prehensive and systemic, aiming to provide more sustainable results
the adoption of end-of-pipe solutions, primarily through storm for the flood control process (Miguez et al. 2009a). This vision
drain enlargement, channelization and rectification, aiming at emerged from the failure of the old paradigm of quickly conveying
quickly discharging the excess stormwater far from the place to rainwater and was based on the concept that drainage systems should
be designed to minimize urbanization’s impacts on the water cycle
1 and natural flow patterns, combining quantitative and qualitative as-
Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa de
Engenharia (COPPE), Univ. Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, pects, achieving technical, social, economic and political objectives,
Brazil; and Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149, CT—bloco I, sala I206— without transferring negative effects and costs in space and time
Cidade Univ.—Rio de Janeiro/RJ—Cep: 21941-909, Brazil (corresponding (Miguez and Magalhães 2010). This concept is associated with
author). E-mail: marcelomiguez@poli.ufrj.br; mgmiguez@gmail.com the design of sustainable urban drainage systems. However, the con-
2
Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa de
cept of sustainability may have a multiplicity of expected consequen-
Engenharia (COPPE), Univ. Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil; and Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149, CT—bloco I, sala I206— ces when applied to an urban system. One of these consequences is
Cidade Univ.—Rio de Janeiro/RJ—Cep: 21941-909, Brazil. that a sustainable solution should be resistant and resilient along time.
3
Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa de This paper formulates the following hypothesis: a sustainable
Engenharia (COPPE), Univ. Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, urban drainage system should be able to accompany the city devel-
Brazil; and Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149, CT—bloco I, sala I206— opment process, maintaining its functionality; however, once the
Cidade Univ.—Rio de Janeiro/RJ—Cep: 21941-909, Brazil. city development alters the watershed natural responses, if city
Note. This manuscript was submitted on February 22, 2013; approved
on February 28, 2014; published online on May 7, 2014. Discussion period
growth is not controlled, even sustainable drainage solutions
open until October 7, 2014; separate discussions must be submitted for in- may fail in a future moment of time.
dividual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Urban Planning and Considering this situation, this paper discusses the need to link
Development, © ASCE, ISSN 0733-9488/04014026(10)/$25.00. the master drainage plan (Galuzzi and Pflaum 1996) with the urban

© ASCE 04014026-1 J. Urban Plann. Dev.

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 master plan, especially concerning land use control, because these Urban Drainage and City Growth
two municipal plans are interdependent and must work together to
achieve a sustainable and effective solution for flood control over The 21st century marks the epoch of cities, when the proportion of
time. The strategy for controlling floods should consider all aspects the world’s population living in urban areas surpasses that living in
related to stormwater generation, its dependence on the physical rural areas. Urban settlements have great impacts on the land and
watershed processes and its interaction with land use characteristics water environments (Wong and Brown 2008). The impacts caused
(Miguez et al. 2009a). For this purpose, a case study on a devel- by floods have greatly increased attributable to human disturbances
oping area of the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region for simulation in river basins and the progressive occupation of natural floodplain
tests is presented, with the use of mathematical models for prospec- areas. The fast urbanization process of the past 200 years, associ-
ting different approaches to urban drainage solutions and urban ated with inadequate land use control, has led to an increase of
growth alternatives, aiming to verify the formulated hypothesis. impervious surfaces, a reduction in the natural retention capacity
The case serves as an example to illustrate a more general discus- and, consequently, higher peak discharges and runoff volumes. The
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sion, which may be conducted in the context of any growing city. typical regular urban surfaces lead also to an increase of the flow
velocity. In developing countries, the problem is even worse, be-
cause of the late industrialization that has concentrated this process
Evolution of Urban Drainage Concepts and in the past half century. Moreover, the evolution of the drainage
Sustainability Aspects design concepts also occurred with a certain delay, when compared
with the developed countries. Miguez et al. (2007) emphasize some
For a long time, the problem of urban flooding was treated without aggravating aspects, common in peripheral countries, which are
necessarily connecting land use control issues with watershed re- related to this discussion:
sponses. This vision directed engineering solutions to quickly con- • Large population growth in a short period of time, with weak
veying the increased post-urbanization flows, generally considering coverage of sanitation infrastructure, and unplanned or uncon-
isolated end-of-pipe solutions. In this approach, the conventional trolled urbanization;
flood control projects aimed to increase the capacity of the drainage • Housing policies unable to prevent illegal occupations, accom-
system. Conceptually, this approach has an intrinsically unsustain- panied by a large number of slums (called favelas, in Brazil) and
able premise, because it departs from the need to adjust the system other informal settlements;
to the consequences of the increased flows generated by the urbani- • Occupation of flood risk areas, both legal owing to lack of
zation process, whereas the city growth itself is not addressed. knowledge, and illegal resulting from social pressures and lack
From the 1970s on, there has been a substantial increase in actions of enforcement; and
prompted by environmental concerns, considering nature and human • Low qualification of municipal technical staff.
development to be inseparable subjects. This can be seen in the creation Leopold (1968) classified the impacts on the basin into three
of the Club of Rome (Club of Rome 1968), which was the starting groups: impacts on the quantity, impacts on the quality and impacts
point for several other global studies. In June 1972, a new development on the basin environmental value. Similarly, Toronto and Region
concept was proposed at the United Nations Conference on the Human Conservation (2006) classified the urbanization impacts according
Environment (UNEP 1972), aiming at smarter production (rationalized to their effects on the water balance, as follows: changes in water-
and with minimal waste). The concept of sustainable development course flow; changes in channel geometry; degradation of aquatic
(Baycan-Levent and Nijkamp 2009; Gómez et al. 2011; Wallbaum et al. habitats; and damage to water quality. Tillinghast et al. (2011)
2011; Ho et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2013), which came to be considered pointed out that changes caused by urbanization force rivers to
in the development agenda of many countries, was born at this event adjust their geomorphic properties to the conditions imposed by
and became consolidated after the United Nations Conference on Envi- the basin’s new configuration. Chocat et al. (2007) showed that the
ronment and Development in 1992 (UNCDE 1992). The establishment advancing urbanization usually leads to loss of opportunities re-
of Agenda 21 (UN 1993), defined the following objectives, focused on lated to water uses. Zhou et al. (2011) stated that human activities
promoting the sustainable development of human settlements: provide driven by socioeconomic factors should be considered responsible
adequate housing for all; improve the management of human settle- for the degradation of river ecological services.
ments; promote sustainable planning and management of land use; The highlighted aspects mapped by the referred authors about
and promote the integrated provision of environmental infrastructure: impacts of city growth on the drainage system conform with the
water, sewage, drainage and solid waste management. main motivation for the recent development of the river restoration
This approach aimed to change the strongly fragmented vision concepts, which may help efforts to find a more harmonic coexist-
of different urban infrastructure departments and institutions into ence between natural and built environments. In brief, river resto-
integrated planning of public policies that strongly affect territorial ration is related to the recovery of: hydrologic functions, especially
management. This fragmentation was responsible for undesirable concerning hydraulic risks reduction; morphologic behavior; water
interactions among the different urban systems. Traditional construc- quality; and natural fluvial ecosystems (Riley 1998; Rutherfurd
tion patterns, for example, often lead to high impervious rates, increas- et al. 2000; CIRF 2006). In urban environments, although it is very
ing surface flows, whereas inadequate garbage and sewage disposal difficult to discuss river restoration in its complete dimensions be-
frequently decreases drainage systems’ conveyance and favors sedi- cause the basin itself is heavily modified, this is an important trend
mentation, tending to cause critical public health problems when drain- and should be considered as an alternative, especially if combined
age system fails and flooding occurs. The aggravation of urban flood with distributed actions over the basin, to restore also watershed
problems, on the other hand, is capable of disrupting city life, striking storage and infiltration functions. It is urgent to protect and restore
back habitation, sanitation and transportation systems. These elements rivers effectively to build healthy cities (Zhou et al. 2011), integrat-
of the urban infrastructure should work in an integrated way. Thus, ing natural and built environment. Therefore, albeit with great con-
urban drainage planning and city growth planning should link storm- straints, restoration of urban rivers is a tendency related with flood
water management issues with territorial planning, to produce suitable control issues. The recovery of flood plains and the use of fluvial
conditions for city development, minimizing reciprocal interferences of parks as greenways along river stretches can be viewed as a first
the urban drainage system and the other city infrastructure systems. simple step toward this possibility.

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 Sustainable Stormwater Management controlling the impervious rates and providing sustainable condi-
tions for functional drainage solutions over time.
Several concepts have been developed in recent decades for sus- In the following section, a case study is used to investigate the
tainable solutions in urban drainage design, trying to recover the interaction between urban growth and stormwater management,
natural characteristics of the hydrological cycle, while adding value searching for the interdependences of these processes. For this pur-
to the city itself. In this context, some of these concepts can be pose, the present flooding scenario for the studied area is resolved
mentioned: best management practices (BMPs), low impact devel- by a traditional channelization intervention and also by a distrib-
opment (LID), sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) and uted stormwater management approach. Then, these two solutions
water sensitive urban design (WSUD). It is important to understand are comparatively tested for their effectiveness under three different
how these concepts evolved to use their potential in the city devel- scenarios of future land use changes, resulting from the city growth
opment process. process, ranging from uncontrolled urbanization to planned urban
BMPs (US EPA 2004) are designed to reduce stormwater growth with land use control. The adaptability of these two ap-
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volume, peak flows and nonpoint source pollution, through infil- proaches is assessed for future urban growth patterns. This case
tration, filtration, biological or chemical processes, retention, and study shows that the integration of innovative stormwater drainage
detention. LID (Elliott and Trowsdale 2007; US EPA 2000; solutions with urban planning opens a pathway towards a more sus-
Coffman et al. 1998), is an approach that works with nature to man- tainable approach.
age stormwater as close to its source as possible. LID employs prin-
ciples such as preserving and recreating natural landscape features,
to minimize the impervious areas and create functional and appeal- Case Study: Pilar-Calombé River Basin, Duque de
ing sites that treat stormwater as a resource rather than a waste Caxias City, in Metropolitan Region of Rio de
product. Bioretention facilities, rain gardens, vegetated rooftops, Janeiro
rain barrels, and permeable pavements are some of the practices
that can be used to adhere to these principles.
The SUDS concepts (Elliott and Trowsdale 2007; Woods- Characterization of Studied Area
Ballard et al. 2007) include the ideals of sustainable development The Iguaçu River Basin is one of the most important basins of
in the drainage system design process, seeking to avoid transfer of Rio de Janeiro state. It drains approximately 726 km2, covering part
impacts. Moreover, besides contributing to sustainable develop- of the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. This basin is shown in
ment, drainage systems can be developed to improve urban design, Fig. 1. The Pilar River is a tributary of the Iguaçu River, in the
managing environmental risks and enhancing the built environ- downstream part of the basin, near the center of Duque de Caxias.
ment. It is possible to harmoniously integrate flood control mea- In turn, the Calombé River is the primary tributary of the Pilar, and
sures into the urban environment, because they can be designed both rivers together define a lowland area subject to frequent flood-
as recreational areas in dry weather and assume the characteristics ing. The Iguaçu River, at downstream reaches, also shows several
of multifunctional landscapes, acting, for example, as reservoirs flooding areas. The Pilar River flows nearly 11.3 km and drains a
when rainfall occurs (Miguez et al. 2007). SUDS objectives surface area of 10.8 km2 . Calombé River runs 9.3 km and drains a
account also for reducing quantity and quality problems and maxi- surface area of 15.0 km2 . There are few densely populated areas in
mizing amenities and biodiversity opportunities. the studied basin, located primarily in its eastern portion, between
In turn, WSUD (Argue 2004; Melbourne Water 2005; Coombes the Calombé River and an important federal highway, where indus-
et al. 2000) tries to integrate social and physical sciences in a holis- trial facilities are located. To assess the major drainage system, land
tic management proposition for urban waters. It is possible to say use was divided into two groups (urban occupation and plant cover)
that most urban and environmental planners have realized that the
engineering alone could not lead to effective results (Higgs 2003).
In fact, technical choices should be coupled with legal, economic,
social, and environmental aspects, among many others, which in-
dicates that the sustainable stormwater management approach must
be flexible and multidisciplinary (Barbosa et al. 2012).
Miguez and Magalhães (2010) indicate that a flood management
plan should aim to manage the flood risk and guide the develop-
ment of drainage systems integrated with urban growth. Galuzzi
and Pflaum (1996) discussed the master drainage plan for the Rock
Creek development, a planned residential community in the town of
Superior, between the cities of Denver and Boulder, Colorado. The
primary objective of the regional drainage system was to mitigate
the increased runoff from the development and safely convey this
runoff in a manner similar to the historic basin conditions. This
master plan provided a comprehensive floodplain management sys-
tem, also including measures to improve the quality of stormwater
runoff and using the natural drainage routes for recreational and
open-space purposes.
The outcomes of master drainage plans are interrelated with
those of urban master plans. However, the basic planning reference
for the master drainage plan is related to the watershed scale rather
than the city or metropolitan limits. As a premise, the stormwater
runoff should not be increased by the watershed occupation—the
Fig. 1. Iguaçu-Sarapuí River basin (data from IBGE 2014)
urban master plan should regulate the territorial occupation by

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 Class Representative image Runoff

Dense 0,70

Urban Occupation
Moderate 0,60

Sparse 0,50
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Secondary
0,20
forest

Vegetal Cover
Anthropic
0,30
field

Bare
0,40
ground

Aerial photographs from Google Earth (2014 DigitalGlobe)

Fig. 2. Land-use map of Pilar-Calombé rivers (data from IBGE 2014, map data: Google, DigitalGlobe)

with three classes each, related to typical runoff coefficients accord- gullies, inlets and storm drains, rivers and channels, and different
ing to their occupation characteristics. The land use map and the hydraulic structures (such as weirs, orifices, gates, pumps). This
adopted use classes can be seen in Fig. 2. model also performs a rainfall-runoff transformation in each cell,
considering the individual local patterns of land use. The runoff
processes are considered jointly with the channel hydrodynamics.
Hydrology Storm drains may work at the free surface, or under pressure, if the
The design rainfall took into account four rain gauges: Nova system fails. All the elements are interconnected and interact with
Iguaçu, Xerém, Bangu and São Bento. The time of concentration each other. The adjustment of the model was based on a known
of the Pilar-Calombé River Basin was estimated at 2.5 h. The in- flooding map of the basin.
fluence area for each gauge was established using Thiessen poly-
gons. Design rainfalls were calculated for return periods of 10, 20,
and 50 years, using the intensity-duration-frequency equations of Present Flooding Situation
each gauge, weighted by the influence area over the basin. For sim- The present flooding situation was diagnosed with the aid of
plicity, and considering that the simulated scenarios are used for MODCEL for storm events with different return periods, ranging
comparison purposes, the design rainfall was assumed to be uni- from 10 to 50 years. The obtained flood maps showed the severity
formly distributed in space and constant in time. The total rainfall of problems for all simulated storm events, primarily on lower-
levels calculated for each return period were 94.5 mm for a return lying areas of the basin, located near the confluence of the Pilar
period of 10 years; 105.5 mm for a return period of 20 years; and and Calombé Rivers. These areas presented flood depths higher
121.6 mm for a return period of 50 years. than 1.0 m, as exemplified in Fig. 3, in the scenario that considered
the design rainfall with return period of 20 years. This return period
was adopted as the reference for the design of flood control proj-
Hydrodynamic Flood Modeling
ects. The Calombé River overflows along almost its entire course,
For the sake of brevity, only a basic description of the adopted causing important riverine flooding. In an upper reach, a large
mathematical model is provided. MODCEL (Mascarenhas and flooded area with relatively low water levels calls the attention.
Miguez 2002; Mascarenhas et al. 2005) is a hydrodynamic quasi- This is explained by a local restriction in a river section, just down-
two-dimensional model, constructed for urban flood simulation, us- stream of this overflow.
ing the flow cells structure (Zanobetti et al. 1970) to represent the Two different flood control projects were proposed. The first
dual drainage concept. This is basically a free academic model, one considered a traditional intervention in the drainage system,
which has been used since 1996 in several studies by Rio de Janeiro focusing on channelization measures. The second one was de-
Federal University (Miguez et al. 2009a, b; Miguez et al. 2012a, b), signed in the context of distributed stormwater management. The
and a tool to aid the practical design process. The basic principle basic premise of these two project configurations was to eliminate
involved in this modeling structure considers that the watershed can all present inundations observed in the Pilar and Calombé Basins,
be fully divided into compartments that represent urban patterns, considering the 20-year return period design rainfall.

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 15.6 km, was estimated at R$ 50.95 million (approximately
US$ 25.5 million—considering an exchange rate of R$ 2.00/US$).
This information is based on data collected from EMOP (Public
Works Company of Rio de Janeiro State) in September 2009.
An expected consequence of this kind of intervention is the peak
flow increase in the river channel after its channelization. This ef-
fect can be understood as a consequence of the elimination of the
undesired overflow areas, which used to work as natural storage
reservoirs. In this case, peak discharges almost double in value.
Although flooding problems have been solved upstream from
the confluence of the Pilar and Calombé rivers, for the return period
of 20 years, a consequent negative effect was the transfer of flood-
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ing to downstream areas, which was verified for all simulated rain-
falls. In an area downstream of the confluence with the Calombé
River, the left bank of the Pilar River started to suffer flooding. This
situation did not happen for any of the simulated events, previously
to the proposed channelization. Another observation shows that,
considering the 50-year return period event, which is greater than
that of the design rainfall, the channel conduction capacity is ex-
ceeded in the lower reaches for the present condition.

Alternative 2—Distributed Measures over the Basin

This alternative was based on the sustainable urban drainage sys-
tems concepts and the proposed measures were
• Cleaning, dredging and recovery of a trapezoidal earth flow
section along the Pilar and Calombé rivers—this action aimed
at eliminating siltation and solid waste accumulated over time in
the channel, owing to the watershed vegetal cover partial re-
moval and solid waste final disposal problems;
• Implementation of detention basins in urban squares (on a micro
Fig. 3. Flood map for the current conditions of land use and major scale, as multifunctional landscapes);
drainage considering a 20-year return period event (data from IBGE • Restoration of the basin’s natural flooding areas and implemen-
2014) tation of a floodable fluvial park along the Pilar River’s right
bank and also along some stretches of the Calombé River; and
• Restoration of the vegetal cover in strategic areas of the basin,
To verify the adequacy of these two projects and the adaptability such as hillsides and mountain tops.
of each one, considering distinct future urban development pos- In this project, the riverine areas with higher flooding frequency
sibilities, three different scenarios of modified land use were pro- were considered to work as wetlands. This way, the restoration of a
posed and simulated to assess the future behavior of the proposed secondary channel bed along the entire Pilar and Calombé rivers
solutions: was considered, slightly increasing the storage capacity of these
• Spontaneous unplanned and uncontrolled urban growth, bring- rivers and ensuring the preservation of the riparian vegetation. The
ing urban saturation – all the possible urbanizing areas occupied reconnection with the floodplains, located in natural lowland areas,
by a dense urban pattern (runoff ¼ 0.70), taking the most den- providing an important river flow damping effect, also was consid-
sely occupied area of the present as reference; ered. So, in addition to hydraulic functions, and to ensure preser-
• Planned urban development, based on the urban master plan, vation of these areas in the long term, they were associated with
considering the maximum controlled density occupation pro- public parks, recreational areas compatible with occasional flood-
posed, although without a specific policy for limiting imper- ing, avoiding future informal urban occupation by low-income
viousness rates; and people. A schematic example of the proposed fluvial space con-
• Planned urban development, based on a sustainable ap- figuration is shown in Fig. 4.
proach, introducing land use controls to avoid an increase of The total area used in the detention basins represents 2.23% of
imperviousness. the Pilar and Calombé basin areas. This value is very close to the
In all cases, the future scenarios considered the same population one estimated by UDFCD—Urban Drainage and Flood Control
growth, although distributed in different urban settlement patterns. District (2010), which suggested a proportion of around 2.0% of
the total watershed area for planning detention basins. These small
detention basins are distributed on the urban landscape, primarily
Proposed Projects on open spaces, public squares or green areas. In the model, they
are considered as reservoirs in each cell that represents the urban-
Alternative 1—Conventional Solution ized area.
In this scenario, flood control interventions were based on the sim- The total costs to implement all the distributed control measures
ple adequacy of the Pilar and Calombé River channels for the peak resulted in a total investment of approximately R$ 53.29 million
flow, through complete channelization in rectangular concrete (approximately US$ 26.64 million), based in EMOP prices in
sections, complemented with an avenue on both banks of the two September 2009. Note that the construction costs of both solutions
rivers. The final construction costs for implementing the new chan- are almost the same. The estimated cost for the distributed mea-
nel and also two avenues on both river banks, in a total length of sures includes the urbanization costs to implement the fluvial parks

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 and the modified squares. This situation was useful for comparison
purposes, because the initial investment for each alternative was not
significantly different. Table 1 shows the interventions considered
in each design alternative. However, it is important to stress that the
aim was not to make a more detailed economic evaluation or to
conduct real estate appraisals. Some points that could be considered
in a broad economic discussion could account for: the loss of op-
portunities from using urban land for flood control instead of using
it productively for other goals, like housing, for example; the in-
crease in value of existing properties in a certain area when flood
risk diminishes; or the possibility to avoid material losses related to
floods. In this sense, Lezcano (2004), for example, verified an ap-
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Fig. 4. Pilar River, its floodplains, and a fluvial park preciation of approximately 17% in property values in the metro-
politan region of Curitiba, Paraná state, Brazil, where flood risks
Table 1. Interventions in Each Design Alternative had been reduced. In this particular case, a set of measures raised
flood protection from a return period of 10–100 years. Another in-
Conventional solution Distributed solutions teresting result, obtained exactly for Baixada Fluminense, the name
Pilar-Calombé rivers Pilar-Calombé rivers dredging (485,960 m3 ) of the whole region studied here, accounts for losses varying from
dredging (62,911 m3 ) approximately 11–22% in the value of structures and their contents,
Channel in concrete with Channel in natural soil with trapezoidal per event, for events varying from 2–50 years of return period
rectangular cross section cross section (Salgado 1995).
Removal of existing Removal of existing houses on river banks
houses on river banks
Marginal avenues with Fluvial park on Pilar River (135,000 m2 ) Simulation of Future Scenarios
bicycle paths (15.68 km) Fluvial parks on Calombé River
(180,890 m2 )
Reforestation of strategic areas Alternative 1—Conventional Urban Drainage Solution
(2,946,229 m2 ) For the condition of urban saturation, which is the most critical one,
Public squares urbanization with detention there was a significant increase in the peak flows, resulting in new
reservoirs (594,484 m2 ) channel overflows, which disrupted the solution provided for the

Fig. 5. Flood map for the condition of saturated urban growth with the Fig. 6. Flood map for the condition of urban growth with controlled
major drainage channelization solution, considering a 20-year return land use and the major drainage channelization solution, considering a
period event (data from IBGE 2014) 20-year return period event (data from IBGE 2014)

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 Table 2. Variation of Flood Peak Discharge for the Channelization Solution
Flood peak (m3 =s)
Present situation Urban growth
Return Reference Designed Planned Planned land use and
period Watercourse scenario channelization master plan imperviousness control Saturation
10 Pilar 17.07 32.61 39.89 39.90 42.51
Calombé 11.45 59.45 63.21 60.92 65.60
20 Pilar 17.38 35.25 40.43 40.74 43.76
Calombé 10.62 64.51 66.08 64.54 67.68
50 Pilar 17.54 37.15 42.59 42.54 44.81
Calombé 9.91 67.35 68.15 67.15 69.46
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20-year return period, as shown on the flood map presented rate that each type of occupation could produce, based on present
in Fig. 5. conditions. This relationship, although consistent, may not be really
The situation of a future planned development, based on the guaranteed in the future occupation of the basin, because the UMP
Duque de Caxias Urban Master Plan (UMP), and the one based does not introduce a formal control over soil imperviousness. The
on the sustainable development criteria with specific controls on municipal control is exerted only on urban density. This lack of mini-
land uses that cause impervious surfaces, showed the return of sig- mum control can lead to a higher degree of imperviousness over the
nificant flooding in several areas of the watershed. Fig. 6 shows the watershed compared with the expected one. Table 2 shows the result-
condition for planned development, with land use control, which ant peak discharges for each simulation.
would be the most favorable situation. It is notable that the increase in flow is greater in the Pilar River
When considering the planned urbanization based on the Duque Basin, which has more green areas today than the Calombé
de Caxias UMP, the conventional project became obsolete, present- River Basin, which already presents a more densely occupied
ing channel overflow at various points of the basin. It is important to watershed. It is also noteworthy that even in a more frequent event,
stress that the modeling choices used to represent the UMP scenario a 10-year return period, the watershed presented generalized flood-
interpreted the relation between the occupation defined in the current ing, with overflow at several points, in this traditional approach
municipal urban zoning and the probable average imperviousness scenario with conventional channelization measures.

Fig. 7. Flood map for the condition of saturated urban growth with Fig. 8. Flood map for the condition of urban growth with controlled
distributed control measures in the basin, considering a 20-year return land use and distributed control measures in the basin, considering a
period event (data from IBGE 2014) 20-year return period event (data from IBGE 2014)

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 Table 3. Variation of Flood Peak Discharge for the Urban Drainage Sustainable Solution
Flood peak (m3 =s)
Present situation Urban growth
Return Reference Sustainable Planned Planned land use and
period Watercourse scenario urban drainage master plan imperviousness control Saturation
10 Pilar 17.07 13.97 17.03 16.15 20.58
Calombé 11.45 18.10 22.30 21.49 27.12
20 Pilar 17.38 15.77 19.61 18.68 22.33
Calombé 10.62 21.10 26.09 24.43 29.96
50 Pilar 17.54 18.93 21.95 21.48 24.55
Calombé 9.91 25.51 29.53 28.83 32.58
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Alternative 2—Distributed Urban Drainage Measures over Considering the implementation of distributed measures over
the Basin the basin, the Calombé River peak flow is 65% lower than the
Considering the scenario of development with urban saturation, maximum flow produced in the channelization solution, whereas
even the measures adopted in a context of sustainable drainage for the Pilar River this value reaches 51%.
concepts fail. They are not able to avoid overflows caused by the The analysis of the results allowed confirmation that the adop-
intensification of uncontrolled imperviousness. The results in this tion of sustainable urban drainage concepts in the design process,
situation are better than those obtained for the channelization with distributed measures over the watershed, did not transfer
solution, but cannot be sustained as desired (Fig. 7). The control flooding downstream, because the basic strategy of flow control
of the urbanization process, by limitation of the impervious rates, used stormwater detentions and the restoration of natural flooding
as simulated in the future scenario with planned development, ob- areas along rivers and lowlands. In this case, there is a higher resil-
tained the best results, tending to an effective sustainable solution ience associated with these measures, helping the city to better face
(Fig. 8), once its functionality was sustained over time. When limit- future challenges. But, more than that, it was possible to confirm
ing imperviousness, Alternative 2 shows an overflow in just one the proposed initial hypothesis, once it became clear that a sustain-
single point of the channel, where the river bank is really low. This able management of the territory is crucial for the success of a
was identified as an isolated effect and could be solved with a sustainable urban drainage project. Table 3 shows the variation of
simple local intervention, by placing, for example, one more flood- flood peak discharge related to the sustainable urban drainage
able square working as a multifunctional landscape at this place. solution, considering all the simulated scenarios.
Note that the darker flooded areas correspond to the temporary stor- Fig. 9 summarizes the variation of flood peak discharge for both
age in the proposed fluvial parks and are related with the expected the channelization and the sustainable urban drainage solution
results. considering the return period of 20 years.

Fig. 9. Variation of flood peak discharge for both the channelization and the urban drainage sustainable solution, considering a 20-year return period
event

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J. Urban Plann. Dev.

 Interpreting the literature review done in this work, and consid- River, became flooded even under the present condition of urban
ering the specific propositions made in the case study developed, development. The channelization approach solved isolated prob-
as a first approximation, general premises to be noted in a city plan- lems of the Calombé River and of the middle stretches of the Pilar
ning development encompass River, at the local scale, but aggravated floods downstream, where
• The watershed should be considered as the reference for city they are not registered today.
planning, even if its territorial limits do not coincide with the On the other hand and in general terms, the distributed measures
administrative municipal limits. over the basin showed greater adaptability in facing the future
• It is necessary to map flow patterns and watershed behavior to urban pattern changes. However, the lack of control over land use
recognize limits impound by nature. and imperviousness can make a drainage project fail in the long
• Natural flow paths and flood plains should be preserved and term, even if it brings an intrinsic sustainable conception. In the
their occupation prevented. Natural or urban parks could be planned scenarios, the solution proved to work effectively and
used to occupy and protect these areas while providing storage steadily. However, under the circumstances of an uncontrolled
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capacities. urban growth, this approach lost efficiency.

• Urban development should be oriented by the watershed flow These results show that the integration of innovative stormwater
patterns. Flood flows have combined space and time compo- drainage solutions with urban planning, reciprocally and in a sys-
nents that could be used in favor of a better urban water manage- temic way, is a key element for flood control. In this context, the
ment. Places that are naturally more impervious, attributable to watershed scale should be taken as the reference for the purposes
soil characteristics, for example, are responsible for generating of urban planning and drainage system design, to understand and
greater runoff volumes and could be set as preferred for urban properly reorganize flow patterns and keep the system working side
expansion. Also small sub-catchments, near downstream areas, by side with city development.
whose flow peak time could be accelerated to avoid its combi-
nation with the whole watershed peak flow contribution, could
be urbanized with minor consequences, while laminating up- Acknowledgments
stream flows and controlling the final hydrograph transferred
downstream. The authors acknowledge National Council for Scientific and Tech-
• Natural vegetation should be preserved, at least, on the hill tops nological Development (CNPQ) and Coordination for Graduate
and at the riverine areas. Personnel Improvement (CAPES) for funding this research.
• Imperviousness rates have to be controlled in urban expansion.
Sustainable urban drainage measures should be introduced to
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