Handling (extreme) rainfall on lot level
Rethinking the design of infiltration facilities
Storm water infiltration on lot level
In the Netherlands the responsibility for the drainage of a lot has been directed to the lot owner. If he is unable to infiltrate the rainwater in the soil or divert it to the surface water, the municipality has to arrange sufficient drainage capacity. This forces the owners to consider the drainage of their land and if necessary to make adequate provisions for it.
There are several possibilities for drainage on lot level, which aim to disconnect the (part of) the lot from the sewer and surface water system. This research focuses on one of them: the infiltration of excess rainwater into the soil with the use of small-scale infiltration facilities.
The design of infiltration facilities
During the last decades storm water infiltration facilities have been applied more and more in the Netherlands and abroad. Starting off as an innovative technology, due to increasing popularity and experience infiltration facilities are becoming more and more mainstream. Although a similar design procedure is used in many countries, many assumptions, rules of thumb and guidelines in these procedures have a weak scientific basis. Furthermore the performance of storm water infiltration systems in normal and extreme rainfall events is also largely unknown. Infiltration facilities are scarcely monitored, but the studies that are available can provide useful experience to improve the design of future infiltration systems.
Given the experience gained during the last decades and the extensive scientific knowledge available about infiltration, it is a good idea to combine these to validate and improve the current practice and design of storm water infiltration facilities.
This leads to my research question:
How do infiltration facilities perform on a lot level in normal and extreme rainfall events and in what way can the design process be improved to take these experiences into account?
Committee:
Prof.dr.ir. N.C. van de Giesen (TU Delft)
Dr.ir. F.H.M. van de Ven (TU Delft, Deltares)
Ir. M.C. ten Veldhuis (TU Delft)
Ir. E.C. Hartman (DHV)
Contact: mail L.A. Valkenburg
