Sustainable Urban Drainage System to Avoid Flooding of Rain Origin and Improving Green Areas, Lima, Peru

Abstract

Lima’s Villa El Salvador is one of the cities of Peru with the highest population growth rate in recent decades, and still it is needing to develop many urban infrastructure services. However, this process of urbanization has also produced a decrease in the permeability of the terrain causing in recent years flooding and severe damages by the occurrence of heavy rains in the district. It was proposed the implementation of a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) to provide an engineering solution to this problem. It consists of a set of elements of the drainage network that will allow the collection, transport, retention, infiltration, and rainwater evacuation sustainably. Four SUDS alternatives were analyzed using well-founded methodologies to select the best alternative solution for the existing problem using technical, economic, and environmental criteria. The implementation of a retention tank and green ditches is the solution adopted to reduce the risk of flooding because of urbanization in the studied area. Runoff from the upper part of the basin will be collected through the green ditches, and the collected water will be distributed to increase the green spaces of the district. However, it will be necessary to supplement with irrigation to preserve them since this locality is climatologically arid. Successful storm water management requires integration with the urban and regional development plans.