Assessing the significance of evapotranspiration in green roof modeling by SWMM

Abstract

Green roof is a low impact development (LID) practice used to mitigate imperviousness in urban areas and to reduce flood risks. In order to have sufficient designs and accurate runoff predictions, computer models should be utilized with full understanding of green roofs' hydrologic processes. Evapotranspiration is usually considered important by researchers in the water balance modeling of a green roof. The Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) version 5.1 is widely utilized rainfall-runoff modeling software which has LID controls capable of modeling green roofs. A previous study has evaluated the performance of this model in green roof simulations for single events without considering evapotranspiration in its application, but attained negative outcomes. Thus, the objective of this study is to determine the significance of considering evapotranspiration in producing accurate runoff simulations specifically using SWMM 5.1. The results of this study have shown that when evapotranspiration was not considered, simulations failed to agree with observed values, whereas when evapotranspiration was considered, simulated runoff volumes attained a very good fit with the observed runoff volumes proving the significance of evapotranspiration as an important parameter in green roof modeling.