Rainwater Retention
Rainwater Retention
Rainwater Retention
14th GeoInformation for Disaster Management (Gi4DM 2022), 1–4 November 2022, Beijing, China
KEY WORDS: Rainwater Retention, Geographic Information System (GIS), Rainwater Harvesting, Flood Interventions, Surface
Runoff, Flood Management
ABSTRACT: This study utilized a geospatial approach to identify suitable sites for rainwater retention areas in Mandaue City, a
highly urbanized city in Cebu, Philippines. Based on the integrated use of remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS),
ideal sites for rainwater retention were produced to divert surface water runoff from flooding the streets and obstructing traffic. Ideally,
the chosen sites should have low infiltration capacity and be within open spaces. For the hydrological planning of the study, we
considered the amount of surface runoff, elevation, soil characteristics, land use, and present drainage status of the study area. The
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived from LiDAR technology is used to obtain the slope raster and generate small streams. Land
cover and curve number (CN) of the area were used to compute the surface runoff. The soil textures were converted based on their
infiltration rate and runoff potential. Finally, the weighted overlay tool in GIS created a layer identifying potential areas for rainwater
retention sites. The findings indicate that 54.8% of the research area was ideal for water harvesting, with open land areas making up
2.3% of the best locations. In addition, a major portion of the appropriate locations lies in clay loam soils and within 0-25 meters in
elevation. These results will hugely benefit policymakers and urban planners in helping create solutions to the city’s flooding problem
and the looming water crisis.
1. INTRODUCTION Today, the flooding issue has reached a critical and alarming
level, resulting in loss and damage to property, loss of man-hours
The increasing number of extreme rainfall events resulting in as residents' mobility is disrupted, and increased fuel
heavy precipitation is causing – and will continue to cause – consumption brought on by heavy traffic during heavy rains
increased urban flooding unless steps are taken to mitigate their (Jaque et al., 2017). Since many of the urban wastewater and
effects. Urban flooding is a growing source of significant stormwater systems that serve as the backbone of urban flood
economic loss, social disruption, and environmental hazards in a mitigation are insufficient or in poor condition, solutions require
highly urbanized city like Mandaue in Metropolitan Cebu, strong support from various government offices, units, and
Philippines. Nestled in the metro, the city is also a major hub for cooperation from all towns involved. Unfortunately, the
trade, industry, tourism, and education. As a result, it has necessary human and financial resources to address urban
experienced consistent growth and development at a rapid rate flooding are not always available at the required levels. Urban
of urbanization. The persistent flooding of the metropolitan area flooding challenges have been difficult to address in many
during heavy rains, however, has recently become a serious issue communities due to a lack of funding, a division of duties among
that demands immediate attention (Ramalho, 2019). various departments, and a reluctance to deal with the effects of
more frequent and intense precipitation and climate change
Unfortunately, Mandaue City rests in the downstream drainage (Galloway et al., 2018).
basin amalgamating the water runoff from the neighboring towns
upstream and from the tributaries of the river nestled in adjacent Although constructing sewage systems is a conventional method
towns. In addition, the city faces serious dilemmas like impaired of treating urban flooding, alternative approaches must be
and flawed drainage systems as of 2012 documents, impassable developed due to their high cost in the light of the present
roads during flood events and over 3,500 households located in financial crisis, particularly in local governments (Ishimatsu,
flood-prone areas labeled as “danger zones” (Mahoney & 2016). Rainwater retention cells, a type of low-impact
Klitgaard, 2019). development, have recently been recommended in Europe and
North America as a best management practice for stormwater
Previous drainage studies were conducted to help the city runoff treatment (Dietz and Clausen 2005; Davis 2007; Li et al.
overcome its flooding woes through drainage master plans in 2009; Kazemi et al. 2011; Autixier et al. 2014; Shuster et al.
1983, 1995 and 2005. These resulted in identifying critical flood- 2017).
prone areas in Mandaue city and its neighboring towns as well
as outlined recommendations for drainage systems for the Urban waterlogging is caused by impervious surface coverage
affected areas. Unfortunately, none of the recommendations and increasing rainfall intensity due to climate change and
were attended to and no guidelines for regulating run-off were variability, which means storm water cannot easily infiltrate the
implemented, hence the flooding problem was exacerbated even ground and excessive surface runoff causes urban flooding.
further (Jaque et al, 2017). Rapid land development, coupled Since there are fewer green spaces in highly urbanized cities like
with aging and inadequate infrastructure, increased the amount Mandaue, resulting in a lack of important rainwater infiltration
of storm runoff that was directed into already overburdened in the city, necessitating the reduction of impervious area and
drainage systems, resulting in pockets of flooding in increased coverage of green spaces (Li et al, 2018; Zhang et al,
underdeveloped and vulnerable neighborhoods. 2020). By using design strategies to produce a functionally
equivalent hydrologic landscape, low-impact developments like
rainwater retention sites can preserve or replicate the hydrologic
This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper.
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-3-W1-2022-1-2022 | © Author(s) 2022. CC BY 4.0 License. 1
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume X-3/W1-2022
14th GeoInformation for Disaster Management (Gi4DM 2022), 1–4 November 2022, Beijing, China
regimes that existed before they were developed. Such (NAMRIA) as well as soil type and land use data from the study
development is based on careful site design for stormwater area’s City Planning Office.
control at the source through the use of rain gardens/bioretention
technology, green roofs, swales/bioswales, and other resources 3.2. Data Processing
(Zhang et al, 2020). A rain garden is a shallow land depression
planted with trees and/or shrubs and mulched with bark or 3.2.1. Slope and Drainage: The available DEM data covers a
ground cover. Such gardens are recommended as part of best part of the Cebu province which was clipped to extract only the
management practice for urban storm runoff because of their portion of the study area. Figure 2 shows the clipped elevation
functions of reducing surface runoff, recharging groundwater, raster, highlighting the site’s low elevation interspersed with
and retaining contaminants (Zhang et al, 2020). multiple river networks and streams. Consequently, the slope
map was created using this DEM and extracted through the Slope
In this study, a geospatial approach has been utilized to identify tool in the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst environment.
suitable sites for rainwater retention areas in Mandaue City, a
highly urbanized city in Cebu, Philippines. Based on an In order to properly delineate basins and streams, the Hydrologic
integrated use of remote sensing and Geographic Information Engineering Center's Geospatial Hydrologic Modeling
System (GIS), ideal sites for rainwater retention are produced in Extension (HEC-geoHMS) toolbar was utilized for DEM
order to divert surface water runoff from flooding the streets and reconditioning and fill sinks. DEM reconditioning is the process
obstructing the traffic. Ideally, the chosen sites should have high of adjusting the DEM so that elevations direct drainage towards
infiltration capacity and be located in open spaces. the vector information on stream position, and sinks should be
filled to ensure proper delineation of basins and streams.
2. STUDY AREA
This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper.
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-3-W1-2022-1-2022 | © Author(s) 2022. CC BY 4.0 License. 2
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume X-3/W1-2022
14th GeoInformation for Disaster Management (Gi4DM 2022), 1–4 November 2022, Beijing, China
3.2.4. Surface Runoff: The surface runoff variable for this study
was produced with the use of the ‘Generate CN Grid’ tool from
HEC-GeoHMS toolbar. This method is used to compute for the
surface runoff, after consideration of the soil’s infiltration rate.
In order for the tool to function, soil land cover data, and the
curne number lookup of soil data were required.
For the selection of appropriate rainwater retention sites, not all The most important consideration when choosing the best
parameters were equally significant. As a result, various weights locations for rainwater retention is surface runoff. The
for each criteria were determined. These criterions used for the distribution of surface runoff across the city is shown in Figure
study are tabularized in table 2. The slope dataset was one of the 4. For specific soil and land use/ land cover, the runoff
key criterion used because different slope classes affect runoff parameters are defined by its corresponding curve number (CN).
volume and infiltration, with the type of slope having a CN is the estimate of the precipitation excess of soil cover, land
significant impact on rainwater retention (Munyao, 2010). Land use and antecedent moisture. This value is hereby used as an
cover was also taken into account, with open spaces and parks input factor in the service runoff equation.
regarded to be suitable locations for retention sites while built-
up and agriculturally productive regions were deemed unfit.
Despite the fact that the majority of pertinent studies take the
density of lineaments into account when performing their
analyses and Maina and Raude (2016) highlighting its
significance because these could significantly affect the retention
whether the runoff is for surface storage or ground water
recharge purposes, no lineaments were found inside the study
region. As seen Figure 3, showing the existing lineaments for the
province provided by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical
and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), no
lineaments are located within the study area. Table 1 illustrates
the influences applied to each factor based on a previous study
by Mugo et al. (2019). Given that lineaments are not taken into
account in this study, the distribution of the original influence on
other factors can be seen in Table 2.
Figure 4. Surface Runoff map of Mandaue City, Cebu
4.2. Slope
This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper.
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-3-W1-2022-1-2022 | © Author(s) 2022. CC BY 4.0 License. 3
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume X-3/W1-2022
14th GeoInformation for Disaster Management (Gi4DM 2022), 1–4 November 2022, Beijing, China
4.3. Drainage
This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper.
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-3-W1-2022-1-2022 | © Author(s) 2022. CC BY 4.0 License. 4
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume X-3/W1-2022
14th GeoInformation for Disaster Management (Gi4DM 2022), 1–4 November 2022, Beijing, China
The study area is divided into areas that are suitable for rainwater
retention sites. This is achieved by classifying the ranked factors
into most suitable to least suitable areas as shown in Figure 10.
Out of the overall study region, 54.8% is thought to be the most
suitable places for rainwater retention, of that figure 2.3% is
made up of open land and park areas which were previously
determined by the city planning office to be the best locations for
rainwater retention cells. Additionally, clay loam soils are found
in the majority of suitable regions which are mostly found on
low-elevation slopes between 0 - 25 meters. Only 0.72% of the
study area are considered as least suitable. Figure 10. Rainwater retention suitability
Visible in Figure 10, we can see that most of the suitable areas
are in the coastal plain of the study area. Areas which are most
suitable for rainwater retention, visualized as dark green shades,
can be assessed to be rain gardens and other rainwater retention
cells based on the land area and availability. Pertinent road and
street networks located in these green areas can also be evaluated
for the creation of bioswales in their inner islands and adjacent
strips.
This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper.
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-3-W1-2022-1-2022 | © Author(s) 2022. CC BY 4.0 License. 5
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume X-3/W1-2022
14th GeoInformation for Disaster Management (Gi4DM 2022), 1–4 November 2022, Beijing, China
This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper.
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-3-W1-2022-1-2022 | © Author(s) 2022. CC BY 4.0 License. 6
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume X-3/W1-2022
14th GeoInformation for Disaster Management (Gi4DM 2022), 1–4 November 2022, Beijing, China
This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper.
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-3-W1-2022-1-2022 | © Author(s) 2022. CC BY 4.0 License. 7