Risk-Based Performance Assessment of Stormwater Drainage Networks under Climate Change: A Case Study in the City of Kingston, ON

The ability of urban drainage systems to operate satisfactorily under a wide range of possible future hydrologic conditions is an important system characteristic. As weather patterns shift, it is important to understand how local infrastructure may be affected as extreme rainfall events have the potential to cause direct and indirect damages to communities. Continuous simulation in SWMM 5.1 coupled with synthetic precipitation files generated using GCM outputs were used to assess the risk-based performance in terms of reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability of an urban drainage system in the City of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The study drainage network investigated in this paper never experienced a flooding or surcharging event (i.e., 100% system reliability), however, an observed positive trend in the ratio of conduit depth to full depth over time indicates the potential for unsatisfactory system performance in the future as a result of changing hydrologic conditions due to climate change.