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RESILIENT MASTER PLANNING AND FLOOD PROTECTION

Team members

Chong Shi Qing (ASD), Sruti Niranjan (ASD), Hkyet Zau Mun Aung (ASD), Michelle Wijaya (ASD), Ng J-Cyn (EPD), Heng Jing Han (ISTD), Zhang Ruihan (ISTD)

Building Typology

Our project is a collaboration with ONG&ONG, a firm that encompasses all aspects of the construction business, which includes architecture, master planning, landscaping, interior, lighting, and branding. This architecture project is based upon a site in Philippines where the government had engaged the company on consulting and development work for flood resiliency.

In summary, a plan is done for a selected neighborhood within the city of Balanga, where it will house the displaced residents affected by the floods as well as accommodate for the rise in population growth. The neighborhood will also serve as the model neighborhood with flood-resilient features. It can be a proof-of-concept that is replicable to other flood-prone regions.

The main problem the project tackles at hand is the lack of urban planning, which is needed to account for water issues such as flooding and coastal encroachment.​ 

Therefore, we propose a flood resilient urban typology enhanced with computing and engineering concepts to counter the flood issues in Balanga, Philippines. The approach is innovative and modern as it leverages on both hard and soft engineering to create a new lifestyle undeterred by flood.​ 

The image on the right summarizes the plan while the more specific components are covered is more detail below. The tools include:

1. Parcel Concept

2. Site Plan

3. Bioswales

4. Green Roofs

5. Rain Gardens

6. Detention Basins

7. Flood Information Dissemination / Flood Sensors

 

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Water System Diagram

1. Parcel Concept

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2. Site Plan

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The vision is to build a flood resilient neighbourhood that encourages people to embrace living with water while at the same time, keep them protected from water issues. To achieve this three priorities were generated to integrate the green and blue networks with all aspects of the neighbourhood. 

3. Bioswales

Bioswales act as detainment for surface runoff from main roads, encouraging evapotranspiration, and filters the water before slowly channeling it into the main water management system. 

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4. Green Roofs

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Green roofs serve as a temporary catchment for rainwater, concentrating and redirecting the biofiltered water to other storage facilities such as the underground retention tank

5. Rain Gardens

Rain gardens are depressed land surfaces that absorb, retain, and purify runoff from surrounding impervious surfaces. This feature is a key tool for facilitating groundwater recharge in the water supply networks within our site. 

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6. Detention Basins

One of the tools for stormwater management we are using would be the detention basin. Multi-purpose basins double as a sports court or a skate park and provide residents with a community space to mingle, get active and enjoy the outdoors. They can help to hold a large amount of water, thereby collecting the flow from upstream and reducing the flow rates downstream. A detention basin has four features which carry the technical aspect. In the image below, the 4 features are summed up into one box-like structure, which is hidden by a skate ramp in the park. This shows how the engineering can be beautifully integrated into the landscape while encouraging play and socialization.

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There are 4 features - the riser, orifice, weir and culvert. This diagram on the right describes where these features are and how they integrate into the landscape, which also incorporates soft engineering. The next image visually amplifies the hidden hard engineered structures, bringing out the previous notion of crossing functionality of water management with a fun and vibrant landscape.

detention basin ramp diagram
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More Details on the Detention Basin and its 4 Features

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For a short animation summarizing the specifications of the detention basin, please refer to: https://youtu.be/kyut0Kf0i1A

 

 

 

The detention basin was modelled to be trapezoidal for simplification of calculations. Its size was estimated to be roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool. It has side slopes that facilitate the catchment of rainfall and inflow from surrounding runoff.

The riser is the first feature, which acts like a secondary mini basin that holds back water using the orifice, which is the second feature. The orifice is basically a hole that restricts the flow entering the riser from the basin. The third feature is the weir, which is like a slot at the top of the riser, which increases flow rates when the water level in the basin rises above a certain threshold. And lastly, the culvert redirects the water from the riser or the basin into an external water management infrastructure.

For most of the dimensioning, we used a combination of simple calculations, smart guessing and guess-and-check processes with targets, as well as a software called Hydrology Studio for the more complex calculations. A basic idea of the iterative graphical analysis process is shown in the figure below. The more technical, summarized methodology can also be found in the next flowchart.

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summary methodology for detention basin

7. Information dissemination tool

To enhance flood resiliency, we developed a self-sustaining script that gather data from the project site region using geographical coordinate system. The real-time data collected comes from a sensor set up that measures the height level of the flood as well as the general sentiment scraped from social media, twitter . The data is then cleaned and processed into useful forms and disseminated to the public through Facebook.

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In the event of a flood, the residents’ tweets in Balanga will be scrapped via the twitter API. Collected tweets will be translated and cleaned before being analyzed by the feature engineering model to retrieve the general sentiments of the locals. Combining the sentiment analysis result and sensor measurement of the flood level, we obtain useful and crucial information efficiently and disseminate them to a public Facebook page for the locals. ​

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The flood sensors are strategically placed at the riverside where it can detect and measure the flood in its early stages as well as placed at the elevated walkway which indicates a disastrous situation.

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In collaboration with:

ong ong
FEEDBACK

TEAM MEMBERS

student Chong Shi Qing Architecture and Sustainable Design
student Sruti Niranjan Architecture and Sustainable Design
student Hkyet Zau Mun Aung Architecture and Sustainable Design
student Michelle Wijaya Architecture and Sustainable Design
student Ng J-Cyn Engineering Product Development
student Heng Jing Han Information Systems Technology and Design
student Zhang Ruihan Information Systems Technology and Design

© 2021 SUTD

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