Hydraulic analysis of underground bioretention systems

Abstract

The conventional practices of urbanization significantly increase the flooding and water pollution. This is due to reduction in pervious areas. To minimize the problem, various concepts of low impact development have been implemented such as underground bioretention cells. The main intention of this research was to review different aspects of Low Impacts Developments (LIDs) especially bioretention cells and develop a hydraulic model to predict the distribution of runoff throughout the bioretention cell under different scenarios. In this study, the hydraulic simulation model was developed in Matlab in order to attain better understanding of bioretention systems. The hydraulic model was used to investigate the impacts of different design options on the distribution of flows over the entire bioretention cell. Understanding the effect of design options can be beneficial to improve the performance of bioretention systems and improving the water quality and quantity in developed areas.