Study for the Proper Management of Rainwater Withing the Mexican Water Technology Institute

Abstract

The Mexican Water Technology Institute (IMTA) is located at the meeting point of two streams that tend to saturate and overflow during the rainy season. Several flooding incidents have taken place throughout past decades resulting in complications for the IMTA and surrounding zones. This article presents the results of the analysis of basins-of-contribution drainage, the behavior of the streams and the flood zones for different return periods. A proposal to modify the pluvial-drainage network was developed with the results of the analysis in order to mitigate flood impacts. The efficiency of the proposed infrastructure was evaluated under the same conditions of the original scenario. All of this was carried out with the aid of a digital elevation model (DEM), of the basins of contribution, a hydrological study performed with the help of software developed at the IMTA. Several drainage coefficients were taken into account for the distinct uses of land in the zone, primarily urban, and mathematical simulation models were created in two dimensions that included current pluvial infrastructure, the digital elevation model, and the sub-basins with their particular characteristics.