Comprehensive Masterplan for Stormwater Drainage
in the City of Riyadh / Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

In the summer of 2010, BIT Consult GmbH in cooperation with bw-engineers won the contract for the Riyadh Stormwater Masterplan. Riad, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is increasingly experiencing strong rainfall events. The rainfall events have caused substantial property damage and some fatalities. The last strong rainfall event occurred in May 2010.

Two engineers from BIT-Consult are placed in Riad for the project that has been running since August 2010. Additional BIT Consult experts are working on the project from Germany. The project is expected to take 3 years to complete.

Commissioned by the city of Riyadh, the project is undertaken in cooperation with the local partner company, the Zuhair Fayez Partnership.

The catchment area that is to be hydrologically examined is approx. 7,500 km² large. The catchment area for the stormwater drainage network that is to be hydrodynamically simulation is approx. 600 km² large. The largest challenge in this project is the predominantly low gradient in the urban areas and therefore the problematic of developing an efficient drainage system.

Service Spectrum

• Retrieving of all available data
• Analysis of available studies
• Creation of a hydrologic simulation model
• Creation of a stormwater drainage network simulation model
• Calculation of discharge for as-is state
• Analysis of as-is station and identification of deficits
• Development of general plan for the stormwater drainage
• Variation analysis
• Detailed planing of the favored variation
• Calculation of costs and creation of priority list 
• Preliminary design of main elements
• Documentation and training of project partner
 

Flooding in northern Riyadh on May 4, 2010