3.1.1. Rainfall Node Overflow Analysis
The statistics of the number of overflow nodes and overflow of the simulation results of six different frequency design rainfalls are shown in
Table 2.
It can be seen from
Table 2, the number of overflow nodes and node overflow both have a positive correlation with rainfall intensity. That is, in the 132 inspection wells in the study area, the number of overflowing wells and overflows gradually increase as the recurrence interval increases. After the rain gardens were added, the number of overflow wells under short-term rainfall conditions reached 8.33%, 30.30%, and 41.67% respectively, which was reduced by 1.79% to 65.63% compared to the no rain gardens regulation; the reduction rate of overflow was 6.74% to 65.23%. Zhou [
17] showed similar results on simulations of the heavy rain in Yuncheng: With the increasing frequency of design storms, the number of overflow nodes shows a very obvious increase trend, and the peak value of node overflows also increases. As a result, the degree of water accumulation in the area increases, and a certain amount of waterlogging disasters occurred. From these results, we concluded that in the low rainfall recurrence intervals of 1a and 2a, the effects of rainwater regulation were better. This is due to the fact that after adding LID measures, the pervious area of the underlying surface increases. The rainwater through physical action and biological action was quickly absorbed. For the 5a rainfall recurrence interval, due to the increase of rainfall intensity, the infiltration and retention capacity of the control measures were exceeded, and the reduction rate decreased, which was related to the mechanism of runoff.
3.1.2. Drainage Capacity of Rainwater Pipe Network
The load state of the pipeline refers to the degree of fullness of the water flow in the pipeline, which is generally described by the ratio of the water depth in the pipeline to the height of the pipeline. MIKE URBAN used “overload status” to reflect the load status of the pipeline. Based on the model simulation results of six rainfalls, the ratio of the pipeline lengths of the four load states to the total length of the pipeline network was calculated. Detailed statistical results are shown in
Table 3.
From
Table 3, it can be seen that: compared with node overflow, in the designing rainfall at the same frequency, with or without the regulation of the rain gardens, the proportion of overloaded pipe network is higher than that of node overflow. In other words, it can be seen that there is a certain amount of rainwater pipe network, although no overflow occurs, but it is operated under a high load condition. Most of the rainwater pipelines in the study area are overloaded by more than 1, indicating that the design standards of the rainwater pipelines are relatively low and cannot meet the urban drainage standards. With the increase of the recurrence intervals, the total rainfall and the maximum rainfall intensity increased, and the low load pipe network gradually changed to a high load pipe network, and the proportion of high load increased.
The layout of the rain gardens has a certain optimization effect on the drainage capacity of the pipe network, but as the recurrence interval increases, the optimization capacity gradually weakens. In the short-term rainfall situation, after the rain gardens were added, the reduction rate of the overloaded pipe section in the study area was reduced by 11.15%, 2.30%, and 0.08%, respectively. In the case of long-term rainfall, they were reduced by 0.05%, 0.03%, and 0, respectively.
3.1.3. Analysis of Outlet Flow and Pollutants on the Study Area
For the six different recurrence interval design rainfalls, before and after the rain gardens were added to the study area, the outlet flow rate Q and the peak, peak arrival time and total amount of each pollutant concentration (SS, COD, TN, and TP) are shown in
Table 4.
It can be seen from
Table 4 that for the short-term rainfall, after rain garden control measures were added, the reduction rate of the discharge peak in the study area increased by 0.42%, 3.59%, and 17.37%, respectively. The peak time of the flow rate was postponed by 6 min, 2 min, and 1 min, respectively; the reduction rate of total runoff increased by 1.93%, 6.13%, and 9.69%, respectively. For the long-term rainfall, the peak flow reduction rate of the study area increased by 2.37%, 4.92%, and 6.56%, respectively. The time at which peak flow occurred was delayed by 3 min, 2 min, and 1 min, respectively, and the reduction rate of total runoff increased by 5.80%, 8.80%, and 9.01%, respectively. It can be seen that rain gardens have the effect of reducing peaks, reducing total amount, and delaying the appearance of flood peaks for urban rainfall runoff. However, as the recurrence interval increases, the rainfall intensity increases, the reduction in flow peaks and total flow decrease accordingly, and the time to delay the flow peak decreases accordingly. This is consistent with experimental research results such as Pan [
18]. The rain garden has a good effect on the total amount of storm water runoff and peaks, and delays the appearance of flood peaks, reduces the risk of urban floods, and increases the efficiency of rainwater utilization.
Rain garden not only has a function of cutting peaks and runoff, but also has the same effect on the load of various pollutants. In the short-term rainfall event, rain garden’s reduction rates for SS, peak concentrations, and total load were 1.08%, 0.86%, 0.75%, and 30.35%, 16.84%, and 2.36%, respectively. The time for peak concentration was postponed by 4 min, 2 min, and 1 min, respectively. In the long-term rainfall event, the reduction rates of SS, peak concentration and total load in rain gardens were 0.70%, 0.66%, 0.42%, and 15.24%, 13.84%, and 8.45%, respectively. The time for peak concentration was postponed by 4 min, 2 min, and 1 min, respectively. For the statistics of pollutants COD, TN, and TP, similar rules are also presented. It can be seen that the rain garden has a relatively stable reduction of the concentration peak and total amount of pollutants SS, COD, TN, TP, and has a better removal effect. As the recurrence interval increases, the rainfall intensity increases, the concentration peak rate decreases, the reduction in total volume decreases, and the peak concentration delay time decreases accordingly.