Proceedings of the Institution of

Civil Engineers
Water & Maritime Engineering 156
??? 2003 Issue ?
Pages 1^8

Paper 12879
Received ??/??/2002
Accepted ??/??/2002

Keywords:
Sajjad Haider Andre¤ Paquier Robert Morel Jean-Yves Champagne
floods & floodworks/hydraulics &
Cemagref, Hydrology^ Cemagref, Hydrology^ Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Mechanics and
hydrodynamics/mathematical
Hydraulics Research Unit, Lyon, Hydraulics Research Unit, Acoustics Laboratory, INSA, Acoustics Laboratory, INSA,
modelling
France; Pakistan Water and Lyon, France Lyon, France Lyon, France
Power Development Authority

Urban flood modelling using computational fluid dynamics

S. Haider, A. Paquier, R. Morel and J.-Y. Champagne
The paper discusses the use of a code solving 2D shallow
water equations in an urban area. Two application exam-
ples are described: a laboratory model representing low-
density housing, and the city of N|“ mes (France), which
suffered a catastrophic flood in October 1988. From these
examples, the paper shows that such 2D models can pro-
vide general flow dynamics. Moreover, they can integrate
description of some details (such as obstacles and storage
areas), which can contribute to an understanding of some
flow features and thus provide accurate results locally.
For engineering use, the limits are computational time
and number of cells: the two examples described show
that a grid adapted to urban topography features is a way
to reduce these disadvantages while providing reliable
results with a convenient numerical stability, even if the
scenarios; crisis management personnel also stood to benefit
from it, as they could devise their plans by taking into account
a sample of likely flood events.
In the face of growing incidents of floods, and especially in
inhabited areas, a need was felt to apply the latest flow
computational methods to the problem of urban flooding in a
more accurate form. Thanks to the progress in information
technology, the computing power available has considerably
increased. In order to use this computing ability to better effect,
one way forward is to choose a more refined and complete
description of the zone selected for modelling. Naturally, this
leads to the choice of a 2D code, which carries many
advantages.

DRAFT
size of the cells varies considerably. First, building the model is much easier in 2D than in 1D for
representing an essentially 2D situation. Typical examples are
NOTATION widening of a street (for instance, in a square) or a crossroads.
g gravitational acceleration In these situations, the use of a 1D model leads to the
h water depth introduction of certain approximations not wholly consistent
i index of cells with the physical reality: horizontal water level and homo-
n index of time geneous velocity inside one cross-section as shown, for
u velocity along x-axis instance, in experiments on junctions or bifurcations of three
v velocity along y-axis rectangular channels.5–8 The results of some of these experi-
K viscosity coefficient ments9,10 have shown that, although the flow is essentially 3D
Ks Manning–Strickler coefficient near the crossings, 2D shallow water equations provide very
S second member of equations accurate results for water levels and velocities. Similar results
W variable (h, hu, hv) on a four-channel crossing have been obtained for subcritical
Z bottom level flow in experiments recently performed in the Fluid Mechanics
Dt time space (¼ tnþ1 þ 1  tn ) Laboratory of INSA (National Institute of Applied Sciences) in
Lyon (France).11
1. INTRODUCTION
The application of computational fluid dynamic methods to the The second principal advantage stems from the fact that a 2D
propagation of a flood wave through an urban zone dates back model is equally efficient regardless of the structure of the
to the pioneering work of Gallati and Braschi.1 A simplified urban zone: that is, whether it is a city centre characterised by
form of the 2D depth-averaged equation and a rather coarse a dense street network, or a suburban zone with low-density
discretisation (grid size being of the order of hundreds of housing.
metres) were used to simulate the flood advance through the
city centre of Florence (Italy). The third improvement that can be brought to the flood
simulation computations by opting for a 2D code with a
Other methods have also been used (e.g. see references 2–4 for detailed topographical basis concerns the representation of the
the more recent and complete ones). All these results have water storage and the obstacles. A 2D model can be effectively
shown the promise that the emerging discipline of CFD holds in used to model large water storage areas, such as hospitals and
helping in the efforts to combat floods. A new computational lawns. Similarly, it is difficult to imagine a town centre without
tool was thus made available to urban planners to evaluate the the presence of obstacles (vehicles) that hinder the flow and
impact of an urban development measure on future flood lead to slowing down. An accurate simulation of the effects

Water & Maritime Engineering 156 Issue ? Urban flood modelling Haider et al. 1

FIRST PROOFS TH i:/Thomas Telford/Wme/WME-12879.3d WME-12879 Page: 1 KEYWORD

 created is much easier with a topography representing a lot of
details such as that which can be taken into account by a 2D
code.
Another feature that distinguishes the computations described
in this paper is the use of the depth-averaged equations in their
complete form. This is an important consideration because the
simplified versions of these equations (diffusive or cinematic
waves) cannot correctly represent the flow in the case of
irregular topography and of a sudden change of the flow
profile.12
Here, both subcritical and supercritical flows across complex
topography are modelled, and in particular the change in the
results due to the introduction of details is analysed. Two cases
are considered. One corresponds to a laboratory model
incorporating scattered obstacles. These obstacles represent
villages in a floodplain submerged by a dam-break wave. The
results of modelling with and without the obstacles are
compared with the water depth measurements. The second case
concerns the simulation of the 1988 flood in the southern
French city of Nı̂mes. An area comprising 50 streets is chosen
to create a very detailed computation grid. A sensitivity
analysis is performed on two topics: introduction of storage
areas and representation of parked cars.
2. EQUATIONS AND NUMERICAL SCHEME
Code Rubar 20, developed by Cemagref, was used. Its explicit
second-order finite volume scheme solves the following set of
equations, which is one of the simplest ways to write 2D de
by the method of least squares and applying limitations of
slopes following reference 14 in order to obtain a TVD
(total variation diminishing) scheme.
(b) Compute the values of W ¼ ðh; hu; hvÞ at intermediate time
tnþ1=2 in the middle of the edge of cell Mi to obtain a
second-order scheme.
(c) Solve a 1D Riemann problem in the direction normal to the
edge at tnþ1=2 in order to estimate the fluxes through edges
for the conservative part of the equations. It is possible to
use a Roe-type linearization,15 which provides an estimate
of the fluxes directly.
(d ) Integrate the terms of the second member of the set of
equations (1)–(3) on the surface of the cell in order to add
the corresponding contribution, and obtain the final value
of the 3D variable Winþ1 by adding a second member
estimated at an intermediate time.
Gravity or slope terms (gh(qZ=qx) or gh(qZ=qy)) are treated
as fluxes in such a way that a horizontal water surface remains
strictly horizontal. Bottom friction terms are more simply
assessed at the centre of the cell; their computation uses an
implicitation in time in order to avoid numerical instabilities
when a rapid change in water depth or velocity occurs.
Diffusion terms are treated as fluxes: first the derivatives are
computed at the middle of the edges; then, these derivatives are
treated in the same way as the original variables.
Rubar 20 was used because it easily enables modelling of
hydraulic jump and any change from subcritical to supercritical
flow.13 Moreover, drying and wetting of large areas are

DRAFT
Saint Venant equations: conveniently modelled.16 Consequently, in the examples
selected here below, the initial conditions were simply con-
qh qhu qhv stituted from a completely dry model.
1 þ þ ¼0
qt qx qy

 3. PHYSICAL MODEL OF THE TOCE RIVER VALLEY

h2 ENEL (Italian Agency for Electricity and Dams) constructed a
q hu2 þ g
qðhuÞ 2 qðhuvÞ
þ þ physical model at its Milan hydraulic laboratory in order to
2 qt qx qy
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
reproduce a 5 km reach of the Toce river in the northern Alps.



qZ u u2 þ v2 q qu q qu The model took into account houses, a reservoir, a dam and two
¼ gh g 2 1=3
þK h þ h
qx Ks h qx qx qy qy bridges. The model was then subjected to flooding and depths

 of water measured at 28 selected points in the model.
h2
q hv2 þ g
qðhvÞ qðhuvÞ 2 In the framework of the European CADAM (Concerted Action
þ þ
3 qt qx qy
for Dam Break wave), these experiments were used to evaluate
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 


qZ v u2 þ v2 q qv q qv the performance of the computer simulation methods. The
¼ gh g 2 1=3
þK h þ h
qy Ks h qx qx qy qy calculated water depths at these 28 stations were compared
with the measured values in order to assess the amount of
in which u and v are the velocities along the x-axis and y-axis confidence that can be put on the predictive capacity of the
respectively, h is the water depth, Z is the bottom level, g is the simulation methods.17
gravitational acceleration, Ks is the Manning–Strickler coeffi-
cient, and K the viscosity coefficient, which is estimated as a 3.1. Model details and information supplied
constant. The scale of the model was 1:100, and the total dimensions of
the experimental facility were 55 m by 13 m.
The mesh is constituted of quadrilaterals or triangles that have
0 or 1 (full) common edge. The mixing of these two kinds of Two floods were modelled, corresponding respectively to the
cell provides various possibilities for adapting to any detail of upstream discharge hydrographs A and B. Hydrograph B was
topography. greater in intensity, with a peak of 0·356 m3/s, which over-
topped the reservoir embankment (Fig. 1), whereas hydrograph
The Godunov-type scheme includes four steps:13 A was of lesser intensity (peak of 0·21 m3/s) and did not
overtop the embankment. Discharges and water depths were
(a) Compute the slope of each one of the three variables h (or provided at the upstream cross-section with a time step of 1 s
z, water level), hu and hv in every cell on the x- and y-axes during a period of 180 s, which included rise and fall of the

2 Water & Maritime Engineering 156 Issue ? Urban flood modelling Haider et al.

FIRST PROOFS TH i:/Thomas Telford/Wme/WME-12879.3d WME-12879 Page: 2 KEYWORD

 served to represent the col-
lective influence of the
houses on the flow, but the
detail regarding the individ-
ual units was lost.

(b) We were unable to repre-

Fig. 1. Toce model: refined mesh and flooded area after 120 s
water levels. The results detailed here below concern hydro-
graph B only, but the behaviour of hydrograph A is quite
similar.
The topographic data was supplied in two forms:
(a) a digital terrain model that divided the projected surface
area of the model into a 5 cm2 mesh and gave the
altitude—that is, coordinate z—of each node. Finally the
three coordinates (x, y and z) of 140 985 points were given
(b) 67 cross-sections, containing 14 433 points.
In addition, topographical data concerning the dam and bridges
sent the exact points in the
horizontal plane corre-
sponding to the vertices of
the house groups. Note that
this constraint could be over-
come by opting for a finer
mesh, so that the size of a
rectangle making up the
mesh was of the order of the
smallest house, but the com-
putation time would be greatly increased.
3.3. Computation and results
The initial computation was performed with a maximum space
step of 30 cm, a total of 8400 cells, zero diffusion, and a
Manning’s value of 0·0162 m1=3 /s (Strickler coefficient of
60 m1=3 /s) recommended by the ENEL. This last value—
corresponding to the concrete from which the model was
made—was kept constant through all the computations because
tests from the CADAM project proved it was a convenient
value.17 A second computation was conducted with a refined
mesh defined by a maximum space step of 15 cm comprising
15 800 cells (Fig. 1). Each of the two computations considered

DRAFT
were also supplied. two cases, namely with and without houses.18

3.2. Representation of the houses in the model The inclusion of the houses led to an increase of water depth
The Toce model contained 173 houses, spread over the model only at those measuring stations that were situated close to a
area. These are concrete blocks of varying height designed to large group of houses. In fact, only three groups of houses (G1,
represent the real houses in the valley. Some blocks are G2 and G3 in Fig. 1) exercised any influence on the results at
grouped (interval between them smaller than their own the stations in their vicinity. One explanation is the strong
dimension) whereas other ones are isolated and scattered. supercritical flow in the model, which precluded any transmis-
sion of waves carrying information upstream from the
When ‘houses’ are grouped, it was decided to merge the obstacles. Fig. 2 shows that the representation of the houses by
individual houses into a large
house, of which the perimeter
is the periphery of the group.
Starting from 173 houses, 17
groups of houses were
obtained.

The coordinates of the ver-

tices of these house groups
were than matched with the
coordinates of the nodes of
the grid, and as the space
discretisation left a finite
number of points, the node
nearest to a vertex in the (x,
y) plane was selected. This
node then replaced the corre-
sponding vertex. Thus two
types of approximation arise
in the houses representation:
Fig. 2. Toce model: water level at gauge S4 (coarse mesh)
(a) The merger into groups

Water & Maritime Engineering 156 Issue ? Urban flood modelling Haider et al. 3

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7 .35
7 .32
7 .29
Water level: m
7 .26
7.23
7 .2
7 .17
7 .14
7 .11
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time: s
Fig. 3. Toce model: water levels at gauge P21
their description as topography provides more ‘realistic’ results
than a representation by increased friction (Manning’s value of
0·04 m1=3 s), although neither representation shows the same
variations of water level as the experimental measurements.
At gauge P21, situated about 50 cm from a large group of
houses (Fig. 1), various computations yielded intersecting
results. The relative proximity of this measurement point
DRAFT
allowed us to assess the effect of various changes in the mesh
on the results. Fig. 3 shows that one clear tendency witnessed
with both types of mesh after the introduction of the houses in
the model was the rise in the water level, which is under-
standable as such a change leads to a reduction of the section
available for the flow. The refined mesh computation with
houses overestimates the water level, whereas the coarse mesh
with houses agrees quite closely with the measurements. It
seems that, whereas the introduction of the houses led to
improved results, the refinement contributes to no further
improvement except the capability to simulate the slight
decrease of water level just after the initial quick rise. One
reason might be that even the refined mesh is not sufficiently
refined to describe every house individually, and consequently
the flow between the houses is not taken into account: the
higher water level with the refined mesh is then only a
consequence of the narrowing of the valley because, in that
precise place, refining the mesh had the consequence of
increasing the area of houses slightly. Further tests were
performed locally including cells of average size 5 cm by 5 cm,
which makes possible the description of the topography of
individual blocks;18 the conclusion was similar at gauge P21.
Nevertheless, generally, the introduction of the houses provided
water levels closer to the experimental measurements. Simi-
larly, the wave arrival time for certain stations increased after
the introduction of the house data, resulting nearer from
measurements. Although it is difficult to generalise, the tests
show that the effect of an obstacle or a group of obstacles
depends on its location in the flow, and thus even a detailed
topographical description is not enough to model local vari-
ations of hydraulic variables.
4 Water & Maritime Engineering 156 Issue ? Urban flood modelling
FIRST PROOFS TH i:/Thomas Telford/Wme/WME-12879.3d
4. THE 1988 FLOOD IN
THE CITY OF NI“MES
4.1. General features of
the model
On 3 October 1988 an
extreme flood occurred in the
southern French city of
Nı̂mes. It was caused by a
generalised storm that poured
down about 150 mm of rain
in 3 h and 250 mm in 6 h.
Modelling the event in part of
Experiment
Coarse mesh: houses the city was undertaken. First,
Coarse mesh: no houses
Refined mesh: houses a database of the zone con-
Refined mesh: no houses
cerned, comprising around 50
140 160 180 200 streets, was built from varied
data (urban database and
field surveys). The zone
measured about 1 km along
the north–south axis, which is
also the principal flow direc-
tion. Structurally, the zone is varied, characterised by a rather
steep upper part followed by a middle part where the width
attains its minimum value, and a third southern zone of
narrow, straight streets crossing at right angles.
The primary building block for the database was the street
cross-sectional profiles (about 200). As no other topographical
or geometrical information was available concerning the street
intersections, they were interpolated from the street profiles. A
simplified typical street profile contained seven points (coordi-
nates x, y, z for each point) and corresponded to two sidewalls
(four points), the two gutters (two points), and the mid point of
the road section. Each sidewall was slightly inclined so that the
coordinates of the top and bottom of a wall had different
coordinates in the horizontal plan. This operation is necessary
in the case of Rubar 20 to distinguish two points located on the
same vertical that, otherwise, will be projected as the same
point on the horizontal plane. This configuration divided the
width of the street into four computation cells if walls were
excluded (Fig. 4).
From the seven-point profiles, a mesh was created by linear
interpolation along the streets. The mesh at the intersections
(Fig. 4) followed from the selected street profile, and repre-
sented the intersection points of the two sets of curves
emanating from the crossing streets. The minimum space step
in the crossroads is 0·2 m, whereas the average space step along
the streets is about 50 m. Such a mesh includes 9093 cells, but
only about half of them are flooded.
Thus, by using this mesh, the representation of the city is
simplified to a network of streets. By contrast, the Toce
example shows the case of isolated obstacles. It can be hoped
that, by joining the two methods, the complexity of the flow
through the city could be modelled.
One of the difficulties of modelling part of the flooded area
only is the definition of suitable boundary conditions. In the
present case, upstream inputs were perfectly located because a
railway embankment closes the two upstream valleys and thus
Haider et al.
WME-12879 Page: 4 KEYWORD

Fig. 4. Typical seven-point street cross-section and plan view of the grid at intersection
60
50 Hydrograph 1 (west)
Discharge: m3/s
40 Hydrograph 2 (east)
30
20
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time: min
Fig. 5. Upstream discharge hydrographs
the flow enters the modelled area only by the two structures
(located on Fig. 8) crossing the embankment that constitutes the
northern border of the area; the estimated peak discharges are
DRAFT
respectively 43 m3/s and 50 m3/s (Fig. 5). Definition of the
downstream conditions was not so clear, because the down-
stream adjacent areas were also flooded. It was admitted that
the direction of the flow follows the bottom slope, and thus that
no exchange of water occurs between adjacent areas that are
separated from the modelled area along the steeper gradients.
A constant Strickler coefficient of 40 m1/3/s (Manning coeffi-
cient 0·025 m–1/3s) was applied to model the bottom friction,
and a constant diffusion coefficient of 0·01 m2/s was used to
model the exchanges between cells of various velocities. This
last value was the one calibrated from laboratory experiments
that modelled the flow around an obstacle.19 The influence of
changes in this parameter was relatively weak, possibly because
the highly varying space step (0·2–50 metres) creates numerical
diffusion. Similarly, the variation of bottom friction coefficient
changed the mean maximum water level without changing
main features of the flow: thus the selected value resulted from
a calibration based on this mean maximum water level without
any local calibration, as no difference between the surfaces of
the various streets can be noticed. With these assumptions, on
the 82 observation points, the mean maximum water level was
different by 0·03 m from measurements, although the standard
deviation reaches 0·93 m.18 This relatively high value seems to
be caused mainly by the insufficient discretisation and by the
errors or uncertainties in the bottom elevation; the possible
influence of local singularities is discussed below.
4.2. Representation of a row of cars
In order to simulate a row of cars, one part of the Bons Enfants
street was selected. This street is aligned from west to east, and
the part concerned is the centre of the southern area with
Water & Maritime Engineering 156 Issue ?
FIRST PROOFS TH i:/Thomas Telford/Wme/WME-12879.3d
narrow streets. The total
length of this street is 517 m
and it has a width of 5·5 m;
the part in which the obstacle
was simulated measured
95 m. The row of cars was
simulated by raising the z
coordinate of the point
between the mid point of the
road and the bottom point of
the adjacent wall by 1·25 m
(see Fig. 6) in the streets,
whereas no change was
effected in the z coordinate value at the intersections on the
two extremities of the street part. The objective was to model a
volume similar to that occupied by parked cars, without
introducing a change in friction or diffusion coefficients,
because such changes are difficult to define from field
observations.
The computations performed showed that the presence of the
obstacle caused a rise in the water level in the street section in
350
question but had nearly no effect elsewhere, which is consistant
with the hydraulics of the problem as the obstacle created is of
quite small proportions. A curve of water depth against time at
point P1 situated in the Bons Enfants street compared the cases
before and after raising the z coordinate: it shows an increase
of peak of about 10 cm and a faster water rise (Fig. 7). Thus,
because of the balancing of the water levels, even locally, the
influence is limited.
4.3. Introduction of a water storage area
The flooding in an urban environment is a complex phenom-
enon owing to the availability of storage areas for the invading
waters. Therefore any modelling of the flood propagation
should be able to simulate this behaviour with a reasonable
degree of ease and accuracy. This effect was modelled for the
case of flooding in Nı̂mes.
The storage area is situated in the upper reaches of the
modelled zone at the site of the hospital (Fig. 8). It is
surrounded on the eastern, western and northern sides by
streets that are bordered by walls: thus the water previously did
not flood this part. As several doors exist to enter the hospital,
three openings were created, one for each street, in order to
allow water to enter this area. Whereas the previous situation
with no opening at all was unrealistic, this hypothesis certainly
increases the exchanges between the streets and the storage
area by too much.
Fig. 6. Cross-section for the simulation of a row of cars by
raising the level of one point
Urban flood modelling Haider et al. 5
WME-12879 Page: 5 KEYWORD
 The slope of the area is
1. 4
adjusted to conform to the
general slope—that is, inclin-
1. 2
ing from north to south and
from west to east. The area
1. 0 Without obstacle
serves to store about
Water depth: m

With obstacle 47 000 m3 (about 10% of the

0. 8
volume of the flood), with an
average water depth of about
0. 6
1 m. Fig. 9 shows the evolu-
tion of the depth of water at
0. 4
point P2 located in the
southern part in which the
0 .2
water depth is higher: it
0
reveals the difficulty for
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 stored water to evacuate
Time: min because no opening was
modelled in the southern side
Fig. 7. Bons Enfants street (point P1). Effect of the simulation of a row of cars of the storage area.

In order to examine the beneficial effects of the creation of the

storage in the upstream part in terms of reduction in the flood
peak, the peak water depths are compared at the same 82 points
with and without storage. The results show a noticeable
decrease, as summarised in Table 1.

The mean maximum water level is decreased by 0·32 m

resulting in a level that is 0·29 m too low, which means that, if
the input discharges are not underestimated, this storage is by
far too important (which is the impression from the observa-

DRAFT
tions although they did not result in measurements as the water
depths were low). However, it seems that the reduction of the
flood downstream of this storage area improved the results in
some places, particularly, as it resulted in a larger proportion of
the water going to the western part of the southern flooded
area. This point is well observed by the standard deviation of
maximum water depths, which reduced from 0·93 m to 0·79 m.
So, although the global result of the introduction of the storage
area is a higher deviation, it proves that consideration of some
local or complementary flow may improve the results, or at
Fig. 8. Peak water depths with storage area least improve our knowledge of the uncertainty about these
results.

25 5. CONCLUSIONS
Two situations of floods in
urbanised milieu have been
20
analysed: one with low-den-
sity housing, the other one
Water depth: m

with dense housing. In both

15
cases the velocities are very
high (often higher than 2 m/s)
10
owing to longitudinal slopes
above 1%: consequently, flow
becomes supercritical in some
05 areas.

Using Rubar 20, which solves

0 2D shallow water equations
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
by an explicit second-order
Time: min
finite volume scheme, pro-
Fig. 9. Water depth in the hospital storage area (point P2) vides water levels close to
measurements. The tests pre-

6 Water & Maritime Engineering 156 Issue ? Urban flood modelling Haider et al.

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 Total number Increase No Decrease <10% Decrease
of points change of peak value 10^20%
82 4 11 7 31
Table 1. Change in maximum water depths when adding the storage area
sented in this paper proved the capability of 2D codes to
simulate flow around or through various obstacles simply
represented by their shape. One limit is the size of the cells, as 5.
too fine a discretisation may lead to such a high number of
cells that it becomes practically impossible to compute (too
long a computing time) and difficult to define all the details.
One other limit is the interaction between obstacles close 6.
together that creates waves and, more generally, essentially 3D
processes that cannot be directly represented by a 2D model.
7.
In the Toce case, unless an appropriate or detailed enough way
of representing houses is selected, a finer mesh will not
necessarily provide average water levels closer to measurements 8.
anywhere, although the details of the hydrographs are
generally modelled in a more accurate way.
9.
In the Nı̂mes case, although the complexity of the processes
and the uncertainty of the data hinder a precise comparison
10.
between observations and calculation results, it seems that the
representation of specific features (such as cars and water
DRAFT
storage areas) may be used to create local changes in water
levels and thus to simulate such observed or possible
discrepancies.
11.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was performed in the framework of the CADAM
project supported by the European Commission (Fifth Research
and Development Framework programme) and the programme
RIO (Flood risks) supported by the French Ministry of the 12.
Environment. The authors thank all the partners of the
concerned projects
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