Hydrological Modeling of Sustainable Drainage Systems Applied to a Parking Lot
Sustainable drainage, modeling, permeable pavement, bioswales.
The intensification of impervious surfaces in urban areas has significantly contributed to the increase in surface runoff and the overloading of conventional drainage systems. In this context, the present study evaluated the hydraulic efficiency of sustainable drainage devices applied to an urban parking lot through hydrological modeling using the EPA-SWMM software. Four distinct scenarios were simulated: (i) fully impervious pavement (PI), (ii) fully permeable pavement (PP), (iii) impervious pavement with a bioretention swale occupying one-third of the area (BV), and (iv) permeable pavement with a bioretention swale also occupying one-third of the area (BP). Each scenario was assessed under five theoretical rainfall events, with return periods of 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years and a duration of 10 minutes, characterizing high-intensity, short-duration storms. The results showed that the modeled sustainable systems were able to promote significant hydrological attenuation, especially in the scenarios with a greater proportion of permeable area. The permeable pavement scenario alone exhibited the highest peak flow reductions, exceeding 45% for lower return periods. The combined scenario (BP) showed similar performance, with reductions close to 44%, while the isolated bioretention swale (BV) produced more modest reductions, ranging from 10% to 13%. In terms of total runoff volume, the highest reductions were also observed in the PP and BP scenarios, reaching up to 11%, whereas the BV scenario achieved reductions of less than 2%. The results confirm the effectiveness of sustainable drainage systems in mitigating the hydrological impacts of urbanization, even in small-scale areas such as parking lots. The combined application of techniques demonstrated synergistic potential, reinforcing their viability as sustainable drainage strategies for managing surface runoff in urban environments.