Work package D4: Urban soil water Content

Contact information

Principal investigators: ​Prof. Dr. Heiko Sieker

Staff: ​Dipl.-Ing., Msc Halim Maamari , ​Dipl.-Ing. Matthias Pallasch

Institution: Ingenieurgesellschaft Prof. Dr. Sieker (​http://www.sieker.de)

Goals of WP-D4

The main goal of WP-D4 will be the calculation of the soil water content for all pervious surfaces using the water balance model (WBM) STORM. The soil water content will be used as input data for the surface energy balance solver of PALM-4U. Moreover, the water balance for impervious surfaces is supposed to be simulated to investigate further climate relevant issues such as pluvial flooding.

Fig. 1: Soil water balance in STORM

Work program

The main tools for computing urban soil moisture contents are: STORM software (Developped by Ingenieurgesellschaft Prof. Dr. Sieker; Hoppegarten) and Geographic information system (GIS) software. The work programs are as follow:

WP-D 4.0: Small scale Water balance modelling

A small scale sample area within the city of Berlin will be modelled and soil moisture outcomes will be used to investigate the interface with PALM-4U.

WP-D4.1: Software interface STORM – PALM-4U

Outcomes of the soil STORM water model will be used as input data for the water and vegetation module. This will be done for a selected Demo city within Germany, however the Water Balance Module (in STORM) will be integrated within PALM-4U in order to create an automated interface offering a worldwide flexibility in soil moisture computation.

WP-D4.2: Large-scale Pre-processing for water balance model

The necessary input data for the Water Balance Module are collected and preprocessed. This step is extremely necessary in order to incorporate land use, soil and climatic data into the STORM model. The collected data will be subjected to a sensitivity analysis for further parameters selection.

WP-D4.3: Large-scale water balance model Setup

In addition to collected data and following WP 4.1, urban catchments will be incorporated into the STORM model. The model will be simulated for the purpose of computing a citywide soil water content representing various types of classified urban soils and land usages. This is done taking into consideration the predefined climatic and temporal scenarios.

WP D4.0- D4.3 are principal targets for the subproject WP-D4. Further issues concerning the performance of the soil moisture balance and climate related questions are going to be investigated in WP-D4.4 and WP-D4.5.

WP-D4.4: Runoff and surface flow-path

The water balance of impervious surfaces will be simulated with STORM taking into account further information like Digital Elevation Model and time area-functions. The calculation of stormwater pathways and pluvial flood areas will be computed for urban hotspots.

WP-D4.5: Investigation on groundwater influence

The influence of potential groundwater on soil moisture content will be investigated. Results will be used to improve the soil moisture calculations with STORM software. Within this phase lies also an opportunity for calibration of the WBM with measurements from module B.