Inundation analysis of metro systems with the storm water management model incorporated into a geographical information system: a case study in Shanghai

Abstract

This study presents an integrated approach to evaluate inundation risks, in which an algorithm is proposed to integrate the storm water management model (SWMM) into a geographical information system (GIS). The proposed algorithm simulates the flood inundation of overland flows and in metro stations for each designed scenario. It involves the following stages: (i) determination of the grid location and spreading coefficient and (ii) an iterative calculation of the spreading process. In addition, an equation is proposed to calculate the inundation around a metro station and to predict the potential inundation risks of the metro system. The proposed method is applied to simulate the inundation risk of the metro system in the urban centre of Shanghai under 50-year, 100-year, and 500-year rainfall intensities. Both inundation extent and depth are obtained and the proposed method is validated with records of historical floods. The results demonstrate that in the case of a 500-year rainfall intensity, the inundated area with a water depth excess of 300 mm covers up to 5.16 km2. In addition, four metro stations are inundated to a depth of over 300 mm.