Facilitating and improving decision-making in urban stormwater management is a key goal of the interdisciplinary research project “Concepts for urban rainwater management, drainage and sewage systems” (KURAS). By reinstating a more natural hydrological cycle, by increasing infiltration, evapotranspiration and stormwater reuse at the building or neighborhood level, e.g. via green roofs, pervious surfaces, swales and artificial ponds, to name but a few, stormwater management has the potential not only to reduce flooding and river degradation but also to improve landscape and habitat quality, the urban climate and resource efficiency, to reduce costs, and to respond more flexibly to uncertain future conditions. These multiple potential benefits have been valuated in a systematic way, thus providing a quantitative and comparative assessment of the effects of the various approaches to stormwater management as a basis for decision-making. An important element is the stakeholder involvement in planning in order to expose interests, resolve conflicts and to discuss existing financial, legal, administrative and knowledge-related barriers to adapted urban stormwater management. For two representative neighborhoods in Berlin, Germany, alternative and realistic stormwater management scenarios have been developed based upon an analysis of the current state and evaluated using the effect indicators. Central actors for stormwater management in Berlin are collaborating with other stakeholders in the sample neighborhoods to formulate and prioritize goals regarding the selection of measures, to discuss the evaluation results and to develop transition strategies. The presentation will focus on this experience of stakeholder participation in the design of stormwater management systems on the neighborhood scale. It will present preliminary findings to be translated into recommendations for policy makers and practitioners.

Im Rahmen eines Planspiels wurden für ein Stadtquartier Kombinationen der Regenwasserbewirtschaftung erstellt und wissenschaftlich bewertet. Die verwendete Methode kombiniert dazu lokale Bedingungen (Problemlage, Machbarkeit von Maßnahmen und lokale Ziele) mit einer Bewertung von 27 Einzelmaßnahmen hinsichtlich ihrer vielfältigen Effekte. Die Ergebnisse zeigen zunächst, dass eine skalenübergreifende Kombination von Maßnahmen vom Gebäude bis zum Kanaleinzugsgebiet ein großes Potenzial für die Verbesserung der städtischen Umwelt (Gewässer und Biodiversität) und Lebensqualität (Stadtklima, Freiraumqualität, Nutzen auf Gebäudeebene) hat. Die verwendete Methode erwies sich als gut geeignet für die Auswahl effektorientierter (und machbarer) Maßnahmen und für deren gezielte Platzierung in Problemräumen. Die Erfahrungen zeigen aber auch, dass die Methode optimiert werden muss, um eine bestimmte Zielerreichung (z.B. Kostenrahmen oder Einleitbeschränkung) während der Planung zu berücksichtigen.

The combined sewer overflow issue in the city of Berlin is becoming an increasing threat to the water quality of the surface water bodies, as the number and volumes of combined sewer overflow (CSO) events occurring per year may be on the rise due to climate variations among other aspects. For this reason, a case study was formulated to investigate the implementation of storage tanks in one of Berlin’s sub catchments, Wilmersdorf, in order to reduce the Occurrence of CSO to a once per year event on average. The investigation was made using InfoWorks Collection system (CS), one dimensional urban planning software used widely for sewer system modelling. The network of the Wilmersdorf catchment (majorly consisting of combined sewers, with small portions of separate rain and separate foul sewers) was modelled with the aid of InfoWorks. The implementation of tanks in the network was divided into two main parts: centralized and decentralized tanks. The centralized tanks addressed the issue of CSO, in order to reduce the CSO occurrence to once per year, firstly by using a short design storms representing a one year return period, to implement initial storage volumes, then this network was validated using rain series records for one year (1990) and for thirty years (1980-2010). The decentralized tanks were implemented at much smaller storage volumes compared to the centralized tanks, in localized locations to solve small surface floods in the separate rain sewer system, or to reduce the pollutant load Biological oxygen demand (BOD) of the CSO, by storing water from the separate foul system in the catchment. The results obtained for the centralized storage tanks show major reductions in CSO, with four centralized tanks implemented in central parts of the catchment. The target of once per year CSO event was achieved for the one year rain series (1990), but not for the thirty years rain series (1980-2010). Results for the decentralized storage tanks show reduction of surface flooding for the studied local areas in the catchment, with sometimes a reduction of surface floods also downstream of the targeted areas. On the other hand, the pollutant load (BOD) was reduced by negligible amounts with decentralized tanks at the studied separate foul system locations, with results showing that the overall BOD load reduction in the overflow volume is also accompanied with CSO overall volume reduction.

Changes in rainfall patterns or land use require flexible adaptation strategies for urban drainage systems. However, finding effective measures to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSO) and flooding is not straight-forward. The presented study proposes a holistic assessment approach that combines CSO quantity and quality criteria with indicators for the spatial extent and severity of flood events. The approach is tested for three selected adaptation measures with a detailed calibrated model of Berlin’s largest combined sewer catchment in the software Infoworks CS. The results indicate that a detailed assessment based on multiple performance criteria is necessary to fully understand measure effects. The presented work is embedded in an integrated modelling study involving different elements of the drainage and the wastewater treatment system.

In this study, a method is proposed to activate the maximal in-sewer storage volume of a combined sewer system (CSS) with a limited number of flow regulators to reduce negative impacts of combined sewer overflows (CSO). Based on a detailed analysis of the CSS structure, it indicates suitable locations to install flow regulators. The method has been developed in the programming language R and tested on the Berlin’s biggest CSS. Flow regulators have been implemented in the CSS Infoworks model at the five most suitable locations found and tested for different rainfall conditions. It was found that significant additional in-sewer storage capacity can be activated (~50% of the already existing capacity) leading to CSO volume and pollutant load reductions up to 62% for a three-monthly rain event of 60 minutes duration.

In decentralised storm water management green roofs play a vital role. Nevertheless questions remain concerning the runoff quality for nutrients and herbicides used against root penetration. In this study monitoring is conducted on two 18 year old green and gravel roofs comparing runoff quality based on concentrations and substance loads. The results indicate that runoff concentrations do not differ for total suspended solids (TSS) and total phosphorus (TP). Nitrate (NO3N) and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations are clearly reduced by the green roof (TN green roof: 1.14 mg/L, gravel roof: 2.99 mg/L, n=7), given plant uptake of atmospheric nitrogen. In contrast, organic indicators chemical oxygen demand (COD green roof: 28.1 mg/L, gravel roof: 16.1 mg/L, n=11) and total organic nitrogen (TON) are higher in green roof runoff, possibly from soil leaching. However, total substance loads for 11 sampled storm events are lower by a factor of 0.8 to 0.2 (TSS, COD, TP, TN, TON) for of the green roof compared to the gravel roof, given their different hydraulic behaviours. Regarding herbicides, Mecoprop is still found in relevant concentrations from 0.08 to 6.59 µg/L in the green roof runoff, exceeding the EU threshold for pesticides in surface water bodies of 0.1 µg/L.