Stormwater Modeling in the Fairfield Run Watershed in Newark, Delaware
Date
2015
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Abstract
Stormwater management is becoming increasingly important as threats of global warming and sea level rise could bring increased flooding and inundation to the state of Delaware. Most stormwater systems are built to handle the water from a 10-year rainfall event. However, older systems may no longer be up to this standard, and retrofitting or new management techniques may be required to handle increased rainfall. The purpose of this research project is to analyze the current stormwater system for the Fairfield watershed in Newark, Delaware by creating a model of the system using the Environmental Protection Agency’s Storm Water Management Model and running simulations of rainfall events. Plausible management techniques to reduce runoff and flooding are determined through the use of the model. 2-year, 10-year and 100-year rainfall events are simulated along with actual rainfall events of different scales that have occurred within the last five years. These include Hurricane
Irene, Hurricane Sandy and an average day rainfall event. This study concludes that the current stormwater system is not equipped to handle most rainfall events. Flooding at multiple nodes occurs for every simulated storm, but a reduction of impervious surface in the Laird Campus parking lot in the form of a switch from pavement to forest cover would reduce runoff and flooding for storm events.