Our research group (GEAMA) has been assigned a new project to develop an open-source and free modeling tool for analyzing all urban drainage processes in a GIS environment. The objective is to evaluate the hydraulic behavior and the effects of diffuse pollution on the surface, the drainage network, and the receiving environment. In addition, specific modules will be added to the tool for implementing Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems and analyzing actions related to climate change adaptation. To achieve this goal, the numerical modeling will be based on two existing codes: IBER and SWMM, which will be coupled and enhanced with new capabilities through numerical developments for simulating new processes, including advanced computing techniques and code acceleration.
This project is being carried out by two Civil Engineering companies specialized in the water cycle: ABM and CIVILE, together with the Flumen research institute of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the GEAMA group of the University of A Coruña, respectively. The two companies are part of the Giswater Association (www.giswater.org), which represents a successful collaboration between private companies and public entities for the integration of numerical simulation tools into a GIS environment. The main product of this collaboration is the Giswater application, designed for the management and exploitation of water supply and urban drainage infrastructure elements, both in database and graphical form for any geographic information system (GIS) that allows for global and solid management in relation to water supply and urban drainage models. On the other hand, both university groups have extensive experience in the characterization and modeling of urban drainage processes, and are the main developers of the IBER model (www.iberaula.es), another example of successful collaboration between universities, research centers, and administration for the development of advanced hydraulic and hydrological simulation tools.
The DRAIN project is therefore an innovative project that involves the combination of the two projects, coordinating the working teams of both. Their experience, knowledge, and proven results in generating applicable and useful tools are a guarantee of the viability of the proposal.
DRAIN. Digital RAIN, un modelo integral de drenaje urbano/DRAIN Digital RAIN, an integrated urban drainage model. Ref [CPP2021-008756]. Componente 17, Inversión 3, BDNS: 602450, financiado por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión Europea-NextGenerationEU/PRTR.