Abstract
Already today, the functionality of many sewer and storm water systems are not up to the required standards and consequently flooding problems are experienced in case of heavy storms. System upgrades are required, which are however complicated by the expected future increase in short-term rainfall intensities as a result of climate change. In this case study, focusing on the town of Arvika, Sweden, this issue is investigated in three main steps. In the first, extreme value analyses of 30-min rainfall from an ensemble of climate projections are carried out to estimate the future increase and generate a future design storm. In the second, the existing system’s response to both today’s and future design storms are simulated by a coarse sewer model setup (MOUSE) and a detailed coupled surface-sewer model setup (TSR). In the third and final step, system upgrades are designed and evaluated by both models. The results indicate an increase by 10–30 % of today’s short-term rainfall extremes by the end of the century. Upgrading the system to achieve a satisfactory performance for the future design storm would cost approximately twice as much as an upgrade based on today’s design storm.
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Acknowledgements
The study was mainly performed within the project Climate Proof Areas (CPA), funded by EU through the Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme. Funding was also provided by the Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (MISTRA), through project Mistra-SWECIA, the Swedish Research Council Formas, through project Hydroimpacts 2.0, and by Tokyo Metropolitan University. We gratefully acknowledge this funding. We also thank Kean Foster for assistance with climate projection data and three reviewers for constructive and helpful comments on the original manuscript.
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Olsson, J., Amaguchi, H., Alsterhag, E. et al. Adaptation to climate change impacts on urban storm water: a case study in Arvika, Sweden. Climatic Change 116, 231–247 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0480-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0480-y