REGINA CITY-WIDE STORMWATER MODEL DEVELOPMENT

With new modelling standards, operating procedures and trained staff, the City can look forward to accurately determining upgrade requirements to accommodate new developments.

Client: City of Regina

Location: Regina, SK

Project Type: Stormwater Management

About This Project

In the extreme rainfall events of 1975 and 1983, the City of Regina (the City) experienced widespread storm sewer backups and surface ponding. Flat topography limited flows from draining and resulted in unpredictable fow paths. These events spurred the need for holistic and effective stormwater management to both protect the municipality and its residents from future damaging foods, and ensure maximum efficiency in using limited tax dollars to manage and upgrade the stormwater system.

The City’s stormwater system is comprised of extensive number of elements including 10,705 manholes, 22,869 catchbasins, 15,700 pipes and 22,260 catchbasin leads, as well as the complex topographicalsurface dataset. Given the sheer volume of data, as well as the complexity of replicating stormwater surface flows on an accurate surface, an industryleading approach was deemed necessary.

ISL’s team, based out of Calgary was ultimately retained to develop a new and improved City-wide Stormwater Model, fully considering all surface flows, along with a series of standardized modelling guidelines and operating procedures. ISL’s expertise was specifically sought out, given a track record of developing large scale 2-Dimensional surface flow stormwater models, as well as numerous community and City-wide piped models in other communities. Additionally, data management techniques developed by ISL to manage the large datasets were seen to be a valuable asset. Through a laborious process that included tying the extensive dataset, the City is now equipped with the appropriate tools to accurately assess and manage their stormwater infrastructure.

The creation and use of this model serves as an essential component as the City progresses its asset management framework. It will act as a powerful decision-making tool that enables the City’s engineering staff and consequently administration to assess the status and capability of the existing infrastructure.

Equipped with new modelling standards, operating procedures and trained staff, the City can look forward to accurately determining upgrade requirements to accommodate new developments in the future, working to fulfill the overarching mandate of the Design Regina plan.

Integrated Expertise

Municipal Engineering
Supporting Services

Unchartered Waters in 2D Modelling

Once the new models were developed, ISL held a 2-day training session for 10 City staff from various departments. A training specialist from Innovyze, the creators of InfoWorks, was brought in to teach staff the InfoWorks ICM model
fundamentals.

Following the fundamentals training, City staff spent time one-on-one with the ISL staff who created the model. City staff were shown their new, personal stormwater model, and were run through various scenarios to demonstrate how to complete tasks needed in their day-to-day work. This included adding in new infrastructure or merging models together for use by developers. This was a key step in the overall project to ensure the continual successful integration of the new model.