Developments in Urban Drainage Modelling

Modelling urban drainage is a cost-effective way of designing new systems or analysing and optimising existing systems. However, models will only be beneficial if they sufficiently accurately represent the complex physical, chemical and biological processes going on in the urban drainage system. Part of the challenge of the discipline lies in establishing what level of detail is appropriate for the task in hand, what are the data requirements (reliability, certainty, spatial and temporal coverage etc.), what are the computational demands, where are the system boundaries, etc. The aim of UDM '98 was to bring together specialists to tackle such questions, to present new ideas and revisit old ones, and exchange experience of urban drainage issues. It was the largest in the UDM series so far with participants from 40 countries and over 100 papers/posters. From these 35 papers have been selected covering rainfall/runoff, sewer processes, hydraulic, water quality and sewer quality modelling, hydroinformatics, stormwater management, asset, operational and urban pollution management, and developing countries issues. These proceedings highlight the latest developments, both theoretical and practical, in urban drainage modelling and will be of great value to researchers and practising engineers alike.