Design of Flood Protection in Hong Kong
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Design of flood protection in Hong Kong J.V.L. Beckers, F.L.M. Diermanse & A. Verwey Deltares, Delft, the Netherlands M.L. Tse Mott McDonald HK Limited, Hong Kong, China F.Y.F. Kan & C.C. Yiu Drainage Services Department, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China ABSTRACT: Design of waterways in the rapidly developing city of Hong Kong is commonly conducted based on the Stormwater Drainage Manual (SDM) of the Drainage Services Department. A pragmatic design rule, which is part of the SDM, was reviewed. Special interest was paid to the transition zone between coastal and riverine influences, where floods can be caused by intense rainfall, storm surges or by a combination of the two phenomena. The review shows that the pragmatic design rule provides a reasonable estimate of the fully probabilistic result. Where differences are found, the pragmatic design rule errs on the safe side. This finding can be of interest to delta regions around the world, where the combined influences of rainfall and storm surge pose a similar probabilistic challenge to design of flood protection. 1 BACKGROUND 1.1 Hong Kong flood hazard 1.2 Stormwater Drainage Manual The densely populated city of Hong Kong is a rap- Flood protection and drainage facilities in Hong idly developing coastal region on the South China Kong are designed according to a set of design stan- Sea with a population of over 7 million. The average dards laid down in the Stormwater Drainage Manual annual rainfall is about 2400 mm between 1981 and (SDM, 2000), which is issued by the Drainage Ser- 2010, which is high compared to other world cities. vices Department (DSD) of the Government of the Moreover, the rainfall distribution is far from uni- Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The de- form. The city is often threatened by intense rain- sign rules in the SDM are based on probabilistic cri- storms in the wet season, between April and Octo- teria, that are: each part of the drainage system must ber. These rainstorms can be particularly severe be able to withstand a flood event with a predefined during May and June, with peaks of over 100 mm/hr, return period. The return period (T) depends on the causing traffic disruption, floods and sometimes type of area and on the type of element of the drain- human casualties. age system. The main trunks of the urban drainage Hong Kong is also subject to tropical cyclones or system are designed to have a flood protection level typhoons between May and November. About once of T=200 years. Smaller branches and rural drainage every 5 years a tropical cyclone of the highest cate- are designed to different return periods, see Table 1. gory (hurricane signal No. 10) strikes Hong Kong, often causing severe, damage, storm surges and Table 1: Design standards for drainage system elements. flooding of lower lying coastal areas. Less severe Element Return period tropical cyclones occur more often. On September Urban drainage: trunk 200 years 29, 2011, the Hong Kong Observatory hoisted a Urban drainage: branch 50 years tropical cyclone warning of Signal No. 8 for typhoon Rural catchment main 50 years Nesat, forcing many economic activities to be can- channel celled or postponed. Village drainage 10 years Flood protection and storm water drainage facili- Intensively used agricul- 2-5 years ties are an essential part of the Hong Kong urban in- tural land frastructure. The drainage and flood protection sys- tems are also in constant need of extension, in The required capacities of the various elements of particular in the new towns, rural townships and ur- the drainage system are calculated using a design ban developments of the Northern New Territories rainstorm (hyetograph), rainfall runoff and hydro- (NNT), at the northern border of Hong Kong. logic/hydraulic routing model. The Hong Kong de- sign rainstorms for several return periods are de- sea level and their probabilities of combined occur- scribed in the SDM, as well as the methods for set- rence are taken into account. As a case study, flood ting up rainfall runoff models. Similarly, design of levels are calculated for the Northern New Territo- drainage for tidal effect is based on frequency analy- ries (NNT) districts of Hong Kong (see Figure 1), sis of sea level measurements over the past decades. where new developments are taking place and local The SDM includes a table of extreme sea levels for drainage problems are actually experienced. The re- different return periods for four tide gauge stations at sults can thus be used for an upgrade of the local the Hong Kong coastline. More details of the SDM drainage system. method will be given in the next section. The transition zone between coastal and riverine influences poses a challenging problem. Elevated water levels in that area can be caused either by in- tense rainfall runoff or by a severe storm surge at sea, or by a combination the two phenomena. This implies that there is no single design condition, but rather a collection of likely and less likely combina- tions of extreme and less extreme rainstorms and storm surges. Together, these combinations consti- tute the design flood levels. To calculate the flood levels in the transition zone requires a probabilistic assessment of all possible hydraulic conditions and associated probabilities of occurrence. This is a complex and computationally demanding task. In order to simplify the necessary assessments, the SDM includes an approximate pragmatic design FigureThe 1: next NNT section Study area describes and test in locations. more detail the rule, which states that the T-year flood level is the maximum of two hydraulic conditions: a T-year sea The next section will describe in detail the SDM level in conjunction with relatively moderate X-year design procedures and the probabilistic methods that rainfall event and a T-year rainfall event in conjunc- are used to validate the SDM. Section 3 will present tion with a moderate X-year sea level. The return pe- the calculation results, including a comparison of the riod X of the conjugate event is either 2 or 10 years, probabilistic calculations to the pragmatic design depending on the return period of the main event T: rule. Section 4 discusses the findings and concludes this paper. X=10 years for T=50, 100 or 200 years X=2 years for T=2, 5 or 10 years 2 METHOD For example, to calculate the flood level of an ur- General approach ban drainage branch (design return period 50 years), 2.1 the design water level is calculated as the maximum Design of rainfall drainage and coastal flood protec- of two situations: (1) a T=50-year rainstorm event in tion systems should take into account many criteria, conjunction with a 10-year sea level and (2) a T=50- including economical, environmental, legal and es- years sea level in conjunction with a 10-year rainfall thetic considerations. The SDM focuses mainly on event. Instead of all possible combinations of sea the technical requirements regarding capacity of ele- level and rainfall intensity, only two situations need ments of the drainage system, such as storm water to be considered. This saves significant computing culverts, channels, pipelines and pumping facilities, and analysis time and makes the results easier to un- and on the flood levels for river bank and coastal derstand and explain. However, much depends on protection. The peak flows or flood levels that have the validity of the pragmatic design rule. In 2010, a to be accommodated are calculated in the following review was carried out on the SDM and, as part of steps: that, a validation of the pragmatic design rule. • Determine design rainstorms for a range of re- 1.3 Objectives turn periods. The design storm profile consists of a point hyetograph and an areal reduction factor This paper presents the results of a review of the (ARF). The ARF is applied to take account of pragmatic design rule. The flood levels at test loca- the fact that, for larger areas, the T-year rainfall tions according to the pragmatic design rule are at different locations does not occur simultane- compared to the results of a fully probabilistic calcu- ously or even during the same storm. The point lation, in which many combinations of rainfall and hyetograph for the SDM is constructed from the Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curve. De- The safety standards for flood defence works are tails and variations of this method are described generally expressed in terms of a return period T. in (Keifer and Chu, 1957) and (Chow et al., For the Hong Kong area, water level variations in the 1988). drainage system and rivers are caused by rainfall and • Calculate the rainfall runoff for each catchment sea level variations. The relative influence of either in the area of interest. The runoff depends on the of the two causes differs for different locations. In rainfall intensity, catchment size and topography, the coastal zone, close to the sea, the sea level varia- soil type and land use. The SDM describes the tions will largely determine the local water level. In rational method, which is a relatively simple ap- riverine areas, the rainfall is the dominating factor. proach using a stationary flow assumption. More In the transition zone, between riverine and coastal advanced methods (e.g. Time-Area Method or influence, both processes are relevant. Because of Unit-Hydrograph Method), or numerical models the random nature of rainfall and sea level varia- should be used for catchments of more complex tions, water level probabilities in the transition zone geometry.