FLOOD CONTROL AND DRAINAGE DESIGN nature of floods.

Floods are always a part of

mankind’s life throughout the history and extensive
Introduction
literature exists giving accounts of man’s struggle to
In Webster’s New International Dictionary, a
cope with this natural-phenomena.
‘flood’ is defined as a ‘great flow of water, especially,
a body of water, rising, swelling, and over-flowing Flood Management Measures:
land not usually thus covered; a deluge; a freshet; Flood management measures can be
an inundation’. Commonly, it is considered to be a categorized into (i) short-term and (ii) long-term
phenomenon associated with an unusually high strategies. The specific measures to be
stage or flow over land or coastal area, which results implemented depend on the nature and extent of
in severe detrimental effects. ‘Flood control’ implies flood damages and local conditions. However, the
all measures taken to reduce the detrimental effects effectiveness of short-term measures relies heavily
of flood. on the foundation laid by long-term measures.
Several types of Flooding: Short-term measures
River Flooding: This is the major cause of flooding These measures are adopted for giving quick
in extensive areas as a result of heavy rains in the results when immediate relief to some pockets or
catchment areas as well as local areas thereby locations is felt necessary and they are respectively:
increasing the river levels. • Construction of embankments along the low-
level banks that are subject to frequent flood
Flash Floods: This results due to heavy rains in hilly
spells.
areas which cause local rivers and small streams to
• Construction of raised platforms for
rise to dangerous level within a short period of time
temporary shelter during flood.
say 6 to 12 hours. Heavy and continuous rains in
• Dewatering by pumps of flooded pockets,
local areas can cause flash floods.
towns when gravity discharge of floodwater
Urban Flooding: Local heavy rains up to 100 mm or is not possible.
more in a day over the city and larger towns can • Construction of floodwalls near congested
cause damaging and disruptive flooding due to poor areas of cities, towns and industrial belts.
or chocked drainage and rapid runoff.
Long-term measures:
Storm Surge or Tidal Flooding: This results mostly • Construction of storage reservoirs to
due to tropical disturbances, developing to cyclones moderate the flow peak thereby ensuring
and crossing surrounding coastlines. Cyclone regulation of flood downstream.
induced storm surges have devastating • Integrated watershed management in the
consequences in coastal areas and such surge hilly area catchment, which ensures
induced floods may extend many kilometers inland. reduction in surface runoff, erosion and
increase of infiltration capacity thereby
Floods Arising due to Failure of Dam: A large
reducing the impact of flood.
number of large and small dams are constructed to
store water for various purposes. Due to poor • Flood forecasts and warning based on hydro-
maintenance and due to exceptionally high geomorphological studies which can be
precipitation a severe flood may result causing given with some lead period, thereby
failure of the dam. This causes a surging water front ensuring minimization of property loss and
travelling with high velocity causing destruction of loss of human life by shifting them to safer
properties and loss of life. places.

Causes of Flooding and Economic Loss: Flood Control Strategies

The causes of flooding in all the major river To reduce losses due to flood the strategies to be
systems, therefore, are more or less the same. They followed can be stated as follows:
are: (a) spilling over the banks, resulting in flooding I. Modify flooding by structural means: Herein the
other areas; (b) bank erosion; (c) rising of river beds strategies to be followed involves construction of
caused by deposition of silt; and (d) changing of the dams, dikes, levees, channel alterations, high flow
river course from time to time. diversions and land treatment. The main idea is to
keep water away from the potential damage areas.
Generally, it's quite challenging to provide a II. Flood forecasting: This is a non-structural
precise quantitative estimate of flood losses measure: Here forecast of flooding is provided at the
because the intangible impacts are significant. Each potential damage points. The population both human
year, floods affect several core people and result in as well as livestock and the movable properties are
the loss of a few hundred lives. There are also shifted to a safer place if there is a chance of flood
substantial losses from the death of domestic damage. Herein the objective is to keep people away
animals. The total property damage amounts to from inundated areas.
several hundred cores, not including losses from III. Modify susceptibility to flood damage:
disrupted communications, essential services, and Regulations are framed to avoid undesirable or
environmental degradation. unwise rise of flood plains. Necessary steps are
taken to modify the impact of flooding through
Despite flood hazards mankind has always
individual or group action designed for assisting
shown preference to settle near the reaches due to
people in the preparatory, survival and recovery
assured supply of water, facility of navigation and
phase of floods which are namely through education
fertility of river valleys. A considerable portion of
and information on floods, flood insurance, taxation
world population lives in areas adjacent to rivers and
relief, etc.
often becomes victim of misery due to devastating
Structural measures: ✓ Care should be taken to keep rainfall collection
The structural measures are aimed to surfaces covered.
mitigate flood damage by regulating the movement ✓ Chlorination of the cisterns or storage tanks is
of flood water and these include: necessary if the water is to be used for drinking and
• Dams, reservoirs and high flow diversions, domestic uses.
their purpose is to store flood water ✓ Gutters and downpipes need to be periodically
temporarily or to divert it from the area to be inspected and cleaned carefully.
protected.
• Channel improvement works to increase the ADVANTAGES:
carrying capacity of a river channel and to • Rainwater harvesting provides a source of
pass the flood water quickly through the water at the point where it is needed. It is
channel reach. owner operated and managed.
• Embankments, levees and flood walls to stop • It provides an essential reserve in times of
the flood water from entering the areas to be emergency and/or breakdown of public water
protected. supply systems, particularly during natural
• Catchment treatments to induce holding of disasters.
water in the catchment temporarily. • The construction of rooftop rainwater
catchment system is simple, and local peple
Non-structural measures:
can easily be trained to build one, minimizing
• The main idea is to keep the general civil and its cost.
industrial activities undiminished during flood
• Poor households can start with a single small
which can be ensured by flood forecasting
tank and add more when they can afford
warning systems, flood regulation through
them.
zoning, emergency plans, modifying building
codes, flood proofing, disaster preparedness DISADVANTAGES:
and assistance. • The success of rainfall harvesting depends
• Automatic rain gauge stations provide upon the frequency and amount of rainfall;
reliable picture of the rainfall events in the therefore, it is not a dependable water source
basin. Radar data provide details with regard in times of dry weather or prolonged drought.
to movement and dynamic characteristics of • Low storage capacities will limit rainwater
storms on a large scale. A useful input to the hrvesting so that the system may not be able
forecast is the meteorological satellite data. to provide water in a low rainfall peiod.
Real time forecasts are issued nowadays in • Ciserns and storage tanks can be unsafe for
many countries including India for important small children if proper access protection is
rivers. The data requirements for forecast are not provided.
for flood arising out of rainfall—rainfall • Possible contamination of water prior to
details, catchment details, river geometry, potable use is infrequent, due to a lack of
discharge, water, level adequate resources or knowledge, health
risks ay result; further, cisterns can be a
breeding ground for mosquitoes.

RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM (PARKING

(ROOF, LAWNS, PARKING SPACES) SPACES)
• Parking Space
RAINWATER HARVESTING FROM ROOFTOP A parking space, parking place or
CATCHMENTS parking spot is a location that is designated
Technical Description: for parking, either paved or unpaved. It can
• A rainwater harvesting system consists of be in a parking garage, in a parking lot or on
three basic elements: a collection area, a a city street.
conveyance system, and a storage facilities.
• The collection area in most cases is the roof Benefits of Rainwater Harvesting
of a house or a building. • Reduces stormwater runoff and associated
• A conveyance system usually consists of negative impacts of flooding on downstream
gutters or pipes that deliver rainwater falling water quality in highly urbanized areas.
on the rooftop to cisterns or other storage. • Helps with water conservation and reduces
❖ The water ultimately is stored in a storage demand on public water supply.
tank or cistern. • Prepares for times of drought.
❖ The main sources of external contamination • Harvesting rainwater helps by slowly
are pollution from the releasing water back into the ground.
o air • Stormwater can pick up oil from parking lots
o birds and enter a storm drain that flows to a local
o animal droppings waterway.
o insects
RAINWATER HARVESTING FROM PARKING
The following maintenance guidelines should be
SPACES
considered in the operation of rainwater harvesting
• A sunken. Water-harvesting tree basin/island
systems:
within a parking lot freely harvesting parking
✓ The storage tank should be checked and cleaned
runoff to grow more shade to cool the parking
periodically. lot and surrounding area.
 • Parking lot runoff is directed to perimeter “Dry” System
swale to freely irrigate native trees and other A variation on a rain barrel set-up, but it
vegetation. involves a larger storage volume.
• This basin is unique in that it has no concrete • Pros: Can store a large amount of rainwater,
curb, which reduces costs and materials can be inexpensive to implement, less
consumed. complicated system so maintenance is easier.
• Cons: The storage tank must be located next
RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM (Lawns) to your house.
Three main areas:
• the collection area “Wet” System
• the transportation area This method involves the collection pipes
• the storage area Once the areas are underground in order to connect multiple
addressed, the rainwater can be utilized downspouts from different gutters.
using either above or underground systems. • Pros: The ability to collect from your entire
collection surface, collect from multiple
Collection Area gutters and downspouts, tank can be located
Rainwater can be collected from any area away from your house.
that it doesn’t directly hit and soak into the ground. • Cons: More expensive to implement due to
This includes: underground piping
• Roofs of houses, sheds, or other buildings
• Awnings The ultimate solution - Underground Tanks
• Hanging/spread out tarps This opens up all sorts of possibilities
including automated irrigation for your lawn and
Transportation Area garden.
The transportation area consists of rain
gutters and downspouts. The transportation area Harvesting the Rainwater
can be made of etal or plastic and simply needs to The water is filtered and this can be done to
be large enough to carry the water to the storage a very fine degree. Preferably this filtering mesh
area in an effective manner should be less than 1mm or 1000microns to ensure
the minimum of debris reaching the tank.
Storage Area Usually a one-piece design, and is normally
The storage area is the container(s) where constructed from the either high density
the rainwater is store until it is needed during dry polyethylene or GRP (Fiberglass). It usually buried
times. The container can be: up to 1.2 meters under the ground and encased in
• a buried cistern either compacted stone or concrete. The tank is
• a plstic barrel designed for rainwater storage accessed from the ground via an inspection cover for
• repurposed containers such as large plastic maintenance purposes, though in most cases, once
chests or garbage cans an underground tank is installed it needs very little
• hand built human interference.
Using the Water
The easiest way to utilize the harvested
rainwater is to attach a water hose at the base of the
container and attach a sprinkler, drip/soaker hose, or GOOOOODLUCK!
other attachment to the hose. A timer can also be
attached to automate the lawn watering.
Benefits of using Rainwater
The benefits include:
✓ reduced runoff, reducing erosion issues caused by
dripping water
✓ reduces the impact on local watershed and
conserve precious water resources
✓ conserving water means saving money

Different Methods To Collect Rainwater

Rainwater Barrels (or Butts)
This method is the most common and one that
many people are familiar with, which involves
installing a barrel at a gutter downspout to collect
rainwater.
• Pros: Easily implemented, barrels are readily
available, don’t take up much space so they
can fit into any situation.
• Cons: Capacity is generally only 50 to 100
gallons, easily overflows and wastes
collection opportunities.