Modeling Hydrological Effects of Green Infrastructure in Urban Parks

Abstract

As climate change increases the severity of rainfall events, cities are increasingly interested in green infrastructure. This thesis investigates how green infrastructure in New York City’s urban parks could affect runoff during intense precipitation events. The work combines spatial analysis of the National Land Cover Database and a New York City LiDAR land use dataset to determine appropriate parameters for hydrological models in the city. Here, increased green infrastructure is modeled as a decrease in the perviousness of the surface. Through the hydrological model ParFlow, the effect of green infrastructure in urban parks on runoff is analyzed for various land use scenarios and design storms. The simulation results reveal that green infrastructure decreases the total volume of local runoff, but changes in lag time and peak runoff rates vary with the orientation of parks, the intensity of storms, and the types of land use present throughout the city.