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Evaluating the Performance of Low-Impact Development Practices in Mitigating Runoff Floods in the Kinyerezi River Catchments in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

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Abstract

The impermeable areas in catchments are proportional to peak flows that result in floods in river reaches whose flow-carrying capacity is inadequate. Urbanization is the major factor contributing to floods and intensifying flood risks in urban areas. Dar es Salaam city experiences frequent floods along the Msimbazi River likely due to urbanization. The Low Impact Development (LID) practices that include bioretention (BR) ponds, rain barrels (RB), and rain gardens (RG) have the potential to reduce peak flows and flood levels. This study aims to evaluate the performance of BR, RG, and RB in mitigating peak runoff floods in the Kinyerezi River catchment using the SWMM model. A total of 3698 RB each with 3000 L capacity, 3698 RG each with 28 m2 and 0.9 depth, and 101 BR ponds of sizes ranging from 800 to 10,000 m2 each with 1.2 m depth were deployed into the sub-catchments. The results indicated that the combination of BR, RG, and RB reduced the peak runoff flows and volumes by 36.8% and 24%, respectively. The combination of the three LID practices offered the best performance in mitigating peak runoff floods. It was recommended that authorities should encourage city residents to practice households’ RB and residential RG at the household level. In addition, city planning authorities should ensure that open spaces are left in residential areas for the construction of BR ponds in the future.

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Data Availability

The data used in this study were collected from the Kinyerezi River catchment in Dar es Salaam.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the local government authorities in the Kinyerezi River catchment for their help and close support during field visits for proposing LID practice site locations.

Funding

The study was funded by the Water Institute-Dar es Salaam.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology, Mbeya University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 131, Mbeya, Tanzania

    Livingstone Swilla, Zacharia Katambara & Mwajuma Lingwanda

  2. Department of Water Supply and Irrigation Engineering, Water Institute, P. O. Box 35059, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Livingstone Swilla

Authors
  1. Livingstone Swilla
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Contributions

All authors (LS, ZK, and ML) contributed to the study conception and analysis. LS wrote the first draft of the manuscript. ZK and ML commented on the versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Livingstone Swilla.

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Swilla, L., Katambara, Z. & Lingwanda, M. Evaluating the Performance of Low-Impact Development Practices in Mitigating Runoff Floods in the Kinyerezi River Catchments in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Water Conserv Sci Eng 9, 34 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41101-024-00271-x

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