Impact of Sustainable Urban Drainage System in Stormwater Management A case study in Mat neighbourhood in Prishtina (Kosovo)

Erëzana Qarkaxhija

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Providing adequate urban stormwater management has been the most challenging issue throughout the world. The conventional drainage system used to drain the rainwater has shown its incapability to cope with surface runoff due to the ongoing process of urbanization, land use changes and the climate change impacts.The Sustainable Urban Drainage System has been presented during the last century aiming to change the focus of stormwater management toward natural approaches which will help the efficiency of the conventional system, while, at the same time, improving water cycle and biodiversity, promoting green areas and mitigating floods and the impact of drought periods. Adapting SUDS approaches in the management of stormwater in many developed countries has resulted in multi-beneficial impacts in environment. Also, SUDS is appropriate due to its cost-effective benefits.The aim of this thesis is to present SUDS approaches for the first time in Kosovo and to evaluate their impact in the stormwater management and in water resources in general.Finding new solutions is crucial for a low-income state, which cannot afford to change existing pipe diameters and which did not realize proper stormwater management.SUDS techniques are evaluated for an area of 21.8 ha which is planned to be constructed in the capital city of Kosovo. The chosen area has been threatened by over flowing sewerage system for many years. Construction based on conventional systems is outdated do to its insufficient capacity to cope with the situation in the city.The results from the evaluation of SUDS techniques in this new area have shown that it can reduce the surface runoff and decrease the stress in the conventional sewerage system. Moreover, the implementation of these techniques will also improve water supply by reusing rainwater as the second source for irrigation and for toilet flush purposes in a city that has suffered for many years from water outage due to limited water resources.

Keywords

SUDS, stormwater, water resources, surface runoff, climate, environment

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 11. 4. 2019

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Jakub Štibinger, CSc.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Environmental Sciences

Master programme / field:
Forestry Engineering / Forestry, Water and Landscape Management