Storm Water Management Model

1 Program description

The United States Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) Storm Water Management Model
(SWMM)[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] is a dynamic rainfall
runosubsurface runo simulation model used for
single-event to long-term (continuous) simulation of
the surface/subsurface hydrology quantity and quality
from primarily urban/suburban areas. The hydrology component of SWMM operates on a collection
of subcatchment areas divided into impervious and
pervious areas with and without depression storage to
predict runo and pollutant loads from precipitation,
evaporation and inltration losses from each of the
subcatchment. In addition low impact development
(LID) and best management practice areas on the
subcatchment can be modeled to reduce the impervious
and pervious runo. The routing or hydraulics section
of SWMM transports this water and possible associated
water quality constituents through a system of closed
pipes, open channels, storage/treatment devices, ponds,
storages, pumps, orices, weirs, outlets, outfalls and
other regulators. SWMM tracks the quantity and quality
of the ow generated within each subcatchment, and the
ow rate, ow depth, and quality of water in each pipe
and channel during a simulation period composed of
multiple xed or variable time steps. The water quality
constituents such as water quality constituents can be
simulated from buildup on the subcatchments through
washo to a hydraulic network with optional rst order
decay and linked pollutant removal, best management
practice and low-impact development (LID) removal
and treatment can be simulated at selected storage
nodes. SWMM is one of the hydrology transport models
which the EPA and other agencies have applied widely
throughout North America and through consultants and
universities throughout the world. The latest update
notes and new features can be found on the EPA website
in the download section.

The EPA storm water management model (SWMM) is

a dynamic rainfall-runo-routing simulation model used
for single event or long-term (continuous) simulation of
runo quantity and quality from primarily urban areas.
The runo component of SWMM operates on a collection of subcatchment areas that receive precipitation and
generate runo and pollutant loads. The routing portion of SWMM transports this runo through a system
of pipes, channels, storage/treatment devices, pumps, and
regulators. SWMM tracks the quantity and quality of
runo generated within each subcatchment, and the ow
rate, ow depth, and quality of water in each pipe and
channel during a simulation period divided into multiple
time steps.
SWMM accounts for various hydrologic processes that
produce runo from urban areas. These include:
1. time-varying rainfall
2. evaporation of standing surface water
3. snow accumulation and melting
4. rainfall interception from depression storage
5. inltration of rainfall into unsaturated soil layers
6. percolation of inltrated water into groundwater layers
7. interow between groundwater and the drainage system
8. nonlinear reservoir routing of overland ow
9. capture and retention of rainfall/runo with various
types of low impact development (LID) practices.
SWMM also contains a exible set of hydraulic modeling capabilities used to route runo and external inows
through the drainage system network of pipes, channels,
storage/treatment units and diversion structures. These
include the ability to:
1. handle networks of unlimited size
2. use a wide variety of standard closed and open conduit shapes as well as natural channels
3. model special elements such as storage/treatment
units, ow dividers, pumps, weirs, and orices

Figure 1. SWMM 5 Model Simulation GUI

2 HISTORY
4. apply external ows and water quality inputs from
surface runo, groundwater interow, rainfalldependent inltration/inow, dry weather sanitary
ow, and user-dened inows

EPA SWMM is public-domain software that may be

freely copied and distributed. The SWMM 5 public domain consists of C engine code and Delphi SWMM 5
graphical user interface code. The C code and Delphi
code are easily edited and can be recompiled by students
5. utilize either kinematic wave or full dynamic wave and professionals for custom features or extra output feaow routing methods
tures.
6. model various ow regimes, such as backwater, surcharging, reverse ow, and surface ponding
7. apply user-dened dynamic control rules to simulate
the operation of pumps, orice openings, and weir
crest levels.
Spatial variability in all of these processes is achieved
by dividing a study area into a collection of smaller, homogeneous subcatchment areas, each containing its own
fraction of pervious and impervious sub-areas. Overland
ow can be routed between sub-areas, between subcatchments, or between entry points of a drainage system.
Since its inception, SWMM has been used in thousands
of sewer and stormwater studies throughout the world.
Typical applications include:
1. design and sizing of drainage system components for
ood control
2. sizing of detention facilities and their appurtenances
for ood control and water quality protection

2 History
SWMM was rst developed between 19691971 and has
undergone four major upgrades since those years. The
major upgrades were: (1) Version 2 in 1973-1975, (2)
Version 3 in 1979-1981, (3) Version 4 in 1985-1988 and
(4) Version 5 in 2001-2004. A list of the major changes
and post 2004 changes are shown in Table 1. The current SWMM edition, Version 5/5.1.010, is a complete
re-write of the previous Fortran releases in the programming language C, and it can be run under Windows XP,
Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
and also with a recomplilation under Unix. The code for
SWMM5 is open source and public domain code that can
be downloaded from the EPA Web Site.

EPA SWMM 5 provides an integrated graphical envi3. ood plain mapping of natural channel systems, by ronment for editing watershed input data, running hydromodeling the river hydraulics and associated ood- logic, hydraulic, real time control and water quality simulations, and viewing the results in a variety of graphical
ing problems using prismatic channels
formats. These include color-coded thematic drainage
4. designing control strategies for minimizing Com- area maps, time series graphs and tables, prole plots,
bined Sewer Overow (CSO) and Sanitary Sewer scatter plots and statistical frequency analyses.
Overow (SSO)
This latest re-write of EPA SWMM was produced by
5. evaluating the impact of inow and inltration on the Water Supply and Water Resources Division of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys National Risk
sanitary sewer overows
Management Research Laboratory with assistance from
6. generating non-point source pollutant loadings for the consulting rm of CDM Inc under a Cooperative Rewaste load allocation studies
search and Development Agreement (CRADA). SWMM
7. evaluating the eectiveness of BMPs and Sub- 5 is used as the computational engine for many modelcatchment LIDs for reducing wet weather pollutant ing packages plus components of SWMM5 are in other
loadings.Rainfall-runo modeling of urban and ru- modeling packages. The major modeling packages that
use all or some of the SWMM5 components are shown
ral watersheds
in the Vendor section. The update history of SWMM 5
8. hydraulic and water quality analysis of storm, sani- from the original SWMM 5.0.001 to the current version
SWMM 5.1.007 can be found at the EPA Download in
tary, and combined sewer systems
the le epaswmm5_updates.txt. SWMM 5 was approved
9. master planning of sewer collection systems and ur- FEMA Model Approval Page in May 2005 with this note
ban watersheds
about the versions that are approved on the FEMA Ap10. system evaluations associated with USEPAs reg- proval Page SWMM 5 Version 5.0.005 (May 2005) and
ulations including NDPES permits, CMOM, and up for NFIP modeling. SWMM 5 is used as the computational engine for many modeling packages (see the
TMDL
SWMM 5 Platform Section of this article) and some
11. 1D and 2D (surface ponding) predictions of ood components of SWMM5 are in other modeling packages
levels and ooding volume
(see the SWMM 5 Vendor Section of this article).

SWMM conceptual model

SWMM conceptualizes a drainage system as a series of

water and material ows between several major environmental compartments. These compartments and the
SWMM objects they contain include:

Quality: buildup/washo function coecients, rst order

decay coecients, removal equations. A study area can
be divided into any number of individual subcatchments,
each of which drains to a single point. Study areas can
range in size from a small portion of a single lots up to
thousands of acres. SWMM uses hourly or more frequent
rainfall data as input and can be run for single events or
in continuous fashion for any number of years.

The Atmosphere compartment, from which precipitation

falls and pollutants are deposited onto the land surface
compartment. SWMM uses Rain Gage objects to represent rainfall inputs to the system. The raingage objects
can use time series, external text les or NOAA rainfall 5 Hydrology and hydraulics capadata les. The Rain Gage objects can use precipitation
bilities
for thousands of years. Using the SWMM-CAT Addon
to SWMM5 climate change can now be simulated using
SWMM 5 accounts for various hydrologic processes that
modied temperature, evaporation or rainfall.
produce surface and subsurface runo from urban areas.
The Land Surface compartment, which is represented These include:
through one or more Subcatchment objects. It receives
precipitation from the Atmospheric compartment in the
1. Time-varying rainfall for an unlimited number
form of rain or snow; it sends outow in the form of inlof raingages for both design and continuous
tration to the Groundwater compartment and also as surhyetographs
face runo and pollutant loadings to the Transport compartment. The Low Impact Development (LID) controls
2. evaporation of standing surface water on watersheds
are part of the Subcatchments and store, inltrate or evapand surface ponds
orate the runo.
3. snowfall accumulation, plowing and melting
The Groundwater compartment receives Inltration (hydrology) from the Land Surface compartment and trans4. rainfall interception from depression storage in both
fers a portion of this inow to the Transport compartimpervious and pervious areas
ment. This compartment is modeled using Aquifer objects. The connection to the Transport compartment can
5. inltration of rainfall into unsaturated soil layers
be either a static boundary or a dynamic depth in the
channels. The links in the Transport compartment now
6. percolation of inltrated water into groundwater layalso have seepage and evaporation.
ers
The Transport compartment contains a network of conveyance elements (channels, pipes, pumps, and regulators) and storage/treatment units that transport water to
outfalls or to treatment facilities. Inows to this compartment can come from surface runo, groundwater interow, sanitary dry weather ow, or from user-dened
hydrographs. The components of the Transport compartment are modeled with Node and Link objects. Not
all compartments need appear in a particular SWMM
model. For example, one could model just the transport
compartment, using pre-dened hydrographs as inputs.
If you use the kinematic wave routing then the nodes do
not need to contain an outfall.

7. interow between groundwater and pipes and

ditches
8. nonlinear reservoir routing of watershed overland
ow.
Spatial variability in all of these processes is achieved by
dividing a study area into a collection of smaller, homogeneous watershed or subcatchment areas, each containing
its own fraction of pervious and impervious sub-areas.
Overland ow can be routed between sub-areas, between
subcatchments, or between entry points of a drainage system.

SWMM also contains a exible set of hydraulic modeling capabilities used to route runo and external inows
through the drainage system network of pipes, channels,
The simulated model parameters for subcatchments are storage/treatment units and diversion structures. These
surface roughness, depression storage, slope, ow path include the ability to:
length; for Inltration: Horton: max/min rates and decay constant; Green-Ampt: hydraulic conductivity, initial
1. Simulate drainage networks of unlimited size
moisture decit and suction head; Curve Number: NRCS
2. use a wide variety of standard closed and open con(SCS) Curve number; All: time for saturated soil to
duit shapes as well as natural or irregular channels
fully drain; for Conduits: Mannings roughness; for Water

Model parameters

5 HYDROLOGY AND HYDRAULICS CAPABILITIES

3. model special elements such as storage/treatment GreenAmpt method
units, outlets, ow dividers, pumps, weirs, and ori- This method for modeling inltration assumes that a
ces
sharp wetting front exists in the soil column, separating
4. apply external ows and water quality inputs from soil with some initial moisture content below from satusurface runo, groundwater interow, rainfall- rated soil above. The input parameters required are the
dependent inltration/inow, dry weather sanitary initial moisture decit of the soil, the soils hydraulic conductivity, and the suction head at the wetting front. The
ow, and user-dened inows
recovery rate of moisture decit during dry periods is em5. utilize either steady, kinematic wave or full dynamic pirically related to the hydraulic conductivity.
wave ow routing methods
Curve number method
6. model various ow regimes, such as backwater, sur- This approach is adopted from the NRCS (SCS) curve
charging, pressure, reverse ow, and surface pond- number method for estimating runo. It assumes that the
ing
total inltration capacity of a soil can be found from the

7. apply user-dened dynamic control rules to simulate soils tabulated curve number. During a rain event this
the operation of pumps, orice openings, and weir capacity is depleted as a function of cumulative rainfall
and remaining capacity. The input parameters for this
crest levels
method are the curve number and the time it takes a fully
Inltration is the process of rainfall penetrating the saturated soil to completely dry (used to compute the reground surface into the unsaturated soil zone of pervi- covery of inltration capacity during dry periods).
ous subcatchments areas. SWMM5 oers four choices SWMM also allows the inltration recovery rate to be adfor modeling inltration:
justed by a xed amount on a monthly basis to account for
seasonal variation in such factors as evaporation rates and
Classical inltration method
groundwater levels. This optional monthly soil recovery
This method is based on empirical observations show- pattern is specied as part of a projects evaporation data.
ing that inltration decreases exponentially from an initial
maximum rate to some minimum rate over the course of In addition to modeling the generation and transport of
a long rainfall event. Input parameters required by this runo ows, SWMM can also estimate the production of
method include the maximum and minimum inltration pollutant loads associated with this runo. The following
rates, a decay coecient that describes how fast the rate processes can be modeled for any number of user-dened
decreases over time, and the time it takes a fully saturated water quality constituents:
soil to completely dry (used to compute the recovery of
1. Dry-weather pollutant buildup over dierent land
inltration rate during dry periods).
uses
2. pollutant washo from specic land uses during
storm events
3. direct contribution of wet and dry rainfall deposition
4. reduction in dry-weather buildup due to street cleaning
5. reduction in washo load due to BMPs and LIDs
6. entry of dry weather sanitary ows and userspecied external inows at any point in the drainage
system
Figure 2. SWMM 5s QA/QC Master Example Network. This one
network includes examples 1 through 7 from the SWMM 3 and
SWMM 4 Manuals

Modied Horton Method

This is a modied version of the classical Horton Method
that uses the cumulative inltration in excess of the minimum rate as its state variable (instead of time along the
Horton curve), providing a more accurate inltration estimate when low rainfall intensities occur. It uses the same
input parameters as does the traditional Horton Method.

7. routing of water quality constituents through the

drainage system
8. reduction in constituent concentration through treatment in storage units or by natural processes in pipes
and channels.
Rain Gages in SWMM5 supply precipitation data for one
or more subcatchment areas in a study region. The rainfall data can be either a user-dened time series or come
from an external le. Several dierent popular rainfall

5
le formats currently in use are supported, as well as a pressurized ow. It can only be used with dendritic constandard user-dened format. The principal input prop- veyance networks, where each node has only a single outerties of rain gages include:
ow link (unless the node is a divider in which case two
outow links are required). This form of routing is in1. rainfall data type (e.g., intensity, volume, or cumu- sensitive to the time step employed and is really only appropriate for preliminary analysis using long-term conlative volume)
tinuous simulations. Kinematic wave routing solves the
2. recording time interval (e.g., hourly, 15-minute, continuity equation along with a simplied form of the
momentum equation in each conduit. The latter requires
etc.)
that the slope of the water surface equal the slope of the
3. source of rainfall data (input time series or external conduit.
le)
The maximum ow that can be conveyed through a
conduit is the full normal ow value. Any ow in excess
4. name of rainfall data source
of this entering the inlet node is either lost from the sysThe other principal input parameters for the subcatch- tem or can pond atop the inlet node and be re-introduced
into the conduit as capacity becomes available.
ments include:
1. assigned rain gage
2. outlet node or subcatchment and routing fraction
3. assigned land uses
4. tributary surface area
5. imperviousness and zero percent imperviousness
6. slope
7. characteristic width of overland ow

Kinematic wave routing allows ow and area to vary both

spatially and temporally within a conduit. This can result
in attenuated and delayed outow hydrographs as inow
is routed through the channel. However this form of routing cannot account for backwater eects, entrance/exit
losses, ow reversal, or pressurized ow, and is also restricted to dendritic network layouts. It can usually maintain numerical stability with moderately large time steps,
on the order of 1 to 5 minutes. If the aforementioned
eects are not expected to be signicant then this alternative can be an accurate and ecient routing method,
especially for long-term simulations.

Dynamic wave routing solves the complete one8. Mannings n for overland ow on both pervious and dimensional Saint Venant ow equations and therefore
impervious areas
produces the most theoretically accurate results. These
equations consist of the continuity and momentum
9. depression storage in both pervious and impervious equations for conduits and a volume continuity equation
areas
at nodes.
10. percent of impervious area with no depression stor- With this form of routing it is possible to represent presage.
surized ow when a closed conduit becomes full, such
that ows can exceed the full normal ow value. Flood11. inltration parameters
ing occurs when the water depth at a node exceeds the
maximum available depth, and the excess ow is either
12. snowpack
lost from the system or can pond atop the node and reenter the drainage system.
13. groundwater parameters
14. LID parameters for each LID Control Used

Routing options

Steady-ow routing represents the simplest type of routing possible (actually no routing) by assuming that within
each computational time step ow is uniform and steady.
Thus it simply translates inow hydrographs at the upstream end of the conduit to the downstream end, with
no delay or change in shape. The normal ow equation is
used to relate ow rate to ow area (or depth).
This type of routing cannot account for channel storage,
backwater eects, entrance/exit losses, ow reversal or

Dynamic wave routing can account for channel storage,

backwater, entrance/exit losses, ow reversal, and pressurized ow. Because it couples together the solution for
both water levels at nodes and ow in conduits it can be
applied to any general network layout, even those containing multiple downstream diversions and loops. It is
the method of choice for systems subjected to signicant backwater eects due to downstream ow restrictions and with ow regulation via weirs and orices. This
generality comes at a price of having to use much smaller
time steps, on the order of a minute or less (SWMM
can automatically reduce the user-dened maximum time
step as needed to maintain numerical stability).

Integrated hydrology/hydraulics

LOW-IMPACT DEVELOPMENT COMPONENTS

tion in rain barrel, swales, permeable paving, green roof,

rain garden, bioretention and inltration trench. The
term Low-impact development (Canada/US) is used in
Canada and the United States to describe a land planning
and engineering design approach to managing stormwater runo. In recent years many states in the US have
adopted LID concepts and standards to enhance their approach to reducing the harmful potential for storm water
pollution in new construction projects. LID takes many
forms but can generally be thought of as an eort to minimize or prevent concentrated ows of storm water leaving
a site. To do this the LID practice suggests that when impervious surfaces (concrete, etc.) are used, they are periodically interrupted by pervious areas which can allow
the storm water to inltrate (soak into the earth)
You can dene a variety of sub processes in each LID in
SWMM5 such as: surface, pavement, soil, storage, drainmat and drain.

Figure 3. SWMM 5s LID processes include unlimited low-impact

development or BMP objects per subcatchment and 5 types of
layers.

Each type of LID has limitations on the type of sub process allowed by SWMM 5. It has a good report feature
and you can have a LID summary report in the rpt le and
an external report le in which you can see the surface
depth, soil moisture, storage depth, surface inow, evaporation, surface inltration, soil percolation, storage inltration, surface outow and the LID continuity error. You
can have multiple LIDs per subcatchment and we have
had no issues having many complicated LID sub networks
and processes inside the Subcatchments of SWMM 5 or
any continuity issues not solvable by a smaller wet hydrology time step. The types of SWMM 5 LID compartments are: storage, underdrain, surface, pavement and
soil. a bio retention cell has storage, underdrain and surface compartments. an inltration trench lid has storage,
underdrain and surface compartments. A porous pavement LID has storage, underdrain and pavement compartments. A rain barrel has only storage and underdrain
compartments and a vegatative swale LID has a single
surface compartment. Each type of LID shares dierent
underlying compartment objects in SWMM 5.

One of the great advances in SWMM 5 was the integration of urban/suburban subsurface ow with the hydraulic
computations of the drainage network. This advance is
a tremendous improvement over the separate subsurface
hydrologic and hydraulic computations of the previous
versions of SWMM because it allows the modeler to conceptually model the same interactions that occur physically in the real open channel/shallow aquifer environment. The SWMM 5 numerical engine calculates the surface runo, subsurface hydrology and assigns the current
climate data at either the wet or dry hydrologic time step.
The hydraulic calculations for the links, nodes, control
rules and boundary conditions of the network are then
computed at either a xed or variable time step within
the hydrologic time step by using interpolation routines
and the simulated hydrologic starting and ending values.
The versions of SWMM 5 greater than SWMM 5.1.007
allow the modeler to simulate climate changes by globally New as of July 2013, the EPAs National Stormwater Calchanging the rainfall, temperature and evaporation using culator is a Windows desktop application that estimates
monthly adjustments.
the annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runo
An example of this integration was the collection of the from a specic site anywhere in the United States. Estidisparate SWMM 4 link types in the runo, transport and mates are based on local soil conditions, land cover, and
extran blocks to one unied group of closed conduit and historic rainfall records. The calculator accesses several
open channel link types in SWMM 5 and a collection of national databases that provide soil, topography, rainfall,
and evaporation information for the chosen site. The user
node types (Figure 2).
supplies information about the sites land cover and selects the types of low impact development (LID) controls
would like to use on site. The LID Control features
8 Low-impact development compo- they
in SWMM 5.1.007 include the following among types of
nents
Green infrastructure:
StreetPlanter: Bio-retention Cells are depressions that
The low-impact development (LID) function was new to contain vegetation grown in an engineered soil mixture
SWMM 5.0.019/20/21/22 and SWMM 5.1+ It is inte- placed above a gravel drainage bed. They provide storgrated within the subcatchment and allows further re- age, inltration and evaporation of both direct rainfall and
nement of the overows, inltration ow and evapora-

7
runo captured from surrounding areas. Street planters ter for plant uptake while preventing ponding on the roof
consist of concrete boxes lled with an engineered soil surface. The thickness used for the growing medium typthat supports vegetative growth. Beneath the soil is a ically ranges from 3 to 6 inches.
gravel bed that provides additional storage. The walls of
a planter extend 3 to 12 inches above the soil bed to allow for ponding within the unit. The thickness of the soil
growing medium ranges from 6 to 24 inches while gravel
beds are 6 to 18 inches in depth. The planters capture
ratio is the ratio of its area to the impervious area whose
runo it captures.

Intensive extensive green roofs

Main Street Tree Planter, Miles City (281991376)

InlTrench: inltration trenches are narrow ditches lled

Raingarden:Rain Gardens are a type of bio-retention with gravel that intercept runo from upslope impervious
cell consisting of just the engineered soil layer with no areas. They provide storage volume and additional time
gravel bed below it.Rain Gardens are shallow depressions for captured runo to inltrate the native soil below.
lled with an engineered soil mix that supports vegetative
growth. They are usually used on individual home lots to
capture roof runo. Typical soil depths range from 6 to
18 inches. The capture ratio is the ratio of the rain gardens area to the impervious area that drains onto it.

Inltration trench (6438020585)

Rain garden (2014)

GreenRoof: Green Roofs are another variation of a bioretention cell that have a soil layer laying atop a special drainage mat material that conveys excess percolated
rainfall o of the roof. Green Roofs (also known as Vegetated Roofs) are bio-retention systems placed on roof
surfaces that capture and temporarily store rainwater in a
soil growing medium. They consist of a layered system of
roong designed to support plant growth and retain wa-

PermPave or Permeable Pavements Continuous Permeable Pavement systems are excavated areas lled with
gravel and paved over with a porous concrete or asphalt
mix. Continuous Permeable Pavement systems are excavated areas lled with gravel and paved over with a porous
concrete or asphalt mix. Modular Block systems are similar except that permeable block pavers are used instead.
Normally all rainfall will immediately pass through the
pavement into the gravel storage layer below it where it
can inltrate at natural rates into the sites native soil.
Pavement layers are usually 4 to 6 inches in height while
the gravel storage layer is typically 6 to 18 inches high.

SWMM5 COMPONENTS

The Capture Ratio is the percent of the treated area (street drain away dirty and surface water run-o through color parking lot) that is replaced with permeable pavement. lection, storage, and cleaning before allowing it to be reCistern: Rain Barrels (or Cisterns) are containers that col- leased slowly back into the environment, such as into walect roof runo during storm events and can either release ter courses.
or re-use the rainwater during dry periods. Rain harvesting systems collect runo from rooftops and convey it to
a cistern tank where it can be used for non-potable water
uses and on-site inltration. The harvesting system is assumed to consist of a given number of xed-sized cisterns
per 1000 square feet of rooftop area captured. The water
from each cistern is withdrawn at a constant rate and is
assumed to be consumed or inltrated entirely on-site.

In addition the following features can also be simulated

using the features of SWMM 5 (storage ponds, seepage,
orices, Weirs, seepage and evaporation from natural
channels): constructed wetlands, wet ponds, dry ponds,
inltration basin, non-surface sand lters, vegetated lterstrips, vegetated lterstrip and inltration basin. A
WetPark would be a combination of wet and dry ponds
and LID features. A WetPark is also considered a conVegSwale: Vegetative swales are channels or depressed structed wetland.
areas with sloping sides covered with grass and other vegetation. They slow down the conveyance of collected
runo and allow it more time to inltrate the native soil 9 SWMM5 components
beneath it. Inltration basins are shallow depressions
lled with grass or other natural vegetation that capture The SWMM 5.0.001 to 5.1.007 main components are:
runo from adjoining areas and allow it to inltrate into rain gages, watersheds, LID controls or BMP features
the soil.
such as Wet and Dry Ponds, nodes, links, pollutants, lanWet ponds are frequently used for water quality improve- duses, time patterns, curves, time series, controls, tranment, groundwater recharge, ood protection, aesthetic sects, aquifers, unit hydrographs, snowmelt and shapes
improvement or any combination of these. Sometimes (Table 3). Other related objects are the types of Nodes
they act as a replacement for the natural absorption of a and the Link Shapes. The purpose of the objects is
forest or other natural process that was lost when an area to simulate the major components of the hydrologic cyis developed. As such, these structures are designed to cle, the hydraulic components of the drainage, sewer or
stormwater network and the buildup/washo functions
blend into neighborhoods and viewed as an amenity.
that allow the simulation of water quality constituents.
Dry ponds temporarily stores water after a storm, but A watershed simulation starts with a precipitation time
eventually empties out at a controlled rate to a down- history. SWMM 5 has many types of open and closed
stream water body.
pipes and channels: dummy, ciruclar, lled circular, rectSand lters generally control runo water quality, pro- angular closed, rectangular open, trapezoidal, triangular,
viding very limited ow rate control. A typical sand lter parabolic, power funciton, rectangular triangle, rectangle
system consists of two or three chambers or basins. The round, modied baskethandle, horizontal ellipse, vertirst is the sedimentation chamber, which removes oat- cal ellipse, arch, eggshaped, horseshoe, gothic, catenary,
ables and heavy sediments. The second is the ltration semielliptical, baskethandle, semicircular, irregular, cuschamber, which removes additional pollutants by ltering tom and force main.
the runo through a sand bed. The third is the discharge The major objects or hydrology and hydraulic compochamber. Inltration trench, is a type of best manage- nents in SWMM 5 are:
ment practice (BMP) that is used to manage stormwater
runo, prevent ooding and downstream erosion, and im1. GAGE rain gage
prove water quality in an adjacent river, stream, lake or
bay. It is a shallow excavated trench lled with gravel
2. SUBCATCH subcatchment
or crushed stone that is designed to inltrate stormwater
though permeable soils into the groundwater aquifer.
3. NODE conveyance system node
A Vegatated lter strip is a type of buer strip that is an
4. LINK conveyance system link
area of vegetation, generally narrow and long, that slows
the rate of runo, allowing sediments, organic matter,
5. POLLUT pollutant
and other pollutants that are being conveyed by the water
to be removed by settling out. Filter strips reduce erosion
6. LANDUSE land use category
and the accompanying stream pollution, and can be a best
7. TIMEPATTERN,dry weather ow time pattern
management practice.
Other LID like concepts around the world include
sustainable drainage system (SUDS). The idea behind
SUDS is to try to replicate natural systems that use
cost eective solutions with low environmental impact to

8. CURVE generic table of values

9. TSERIES generic time series of values
10. CONTROL conveyance system control rules

9
11. TRANSECT irregular channel cross-section
12. AQUIFER groundwater aquifer
13. UNITHYD RDII unit hydrograph
14. SNOWMELT snowmelt parameter set

The SWMMM3 and SWMM 3.5 les are xed format.

The SWMM 4 les are free format. The converter will
detect which version of SWMM is being used. The converted les can be combined using a text editor to merge
the created inp les.== SWMM 5 Climate Change AddOn ==

15. SHAPE custom conduit shape

16. LID LID treatment units
The major overall components are called in the SWMM
5 input le and C code of the simulation engine: gage,
subcatch, node, link, pollut, landuse, timepattern, curve,
tseries, control, transect, aquifer, unithyd, snowmelt,
shape and lid. The subsets of possible nodes are: junction, outfall, storage and divider. Storage Nodes are
either tabular with a depth/area table or a functional
relationship between area and depth. Possible node
inows include: external_inow, dry_weather_inow,
wet_weather_inow, groundwater_inow, rdii_inow,
ow_inow, concen_inow, and mass_inow. The
dry weather inows can include the possible patterns: monthly_pattern, daily_pattern, hourly_pattern
and weekend_pattern.
The SWMM 5 component structure allows the user to
choose which major hydrology and hydraulic components
are using during the simulation:
1. Rainfall/runo with inltration options: horton,
modied horton, green ampt and curve number
2. RDII
3. Water Quality
4. Groundwater
5. Snowmelt

11 SWMM-CAT Climate Change

AddOn
The Storm Water Management Model Climate Adjustment Tool (SWMM-CAT) is a new addition to SWMM5
(December 2014). It is a simple to use software utility that allows future climate change projections to be
incorporated into the Storm Water Management Model
(SWMM). SWMM was recently updated to accept a set
of monthly adjustment factors for each of these time series that could represent the impact of future changes
in climatic conditions. SWMM-CAT provides a set of
location-specic adjustments that derived from global climate change models run as part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) archive (Figure 4).
SWMM-CAT is a utility that adds location-specic climate change adjustments to a Storm Water Management
Model (SWMM) project le. Adjustments can be applied
on a monthly basis to air temperature, evaporation rates,
and precipitation, as well as to the 24-hour design storm
at dierent recurrence intervals. The source of these adjustments are global climate change models run as part of
the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3)
archive. Downscaled results from this archive were generated and converted into changes with respect to historical values by USEPAs CREAT project (http://water.epa.
gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/climate/creat.cfm).

6. Flow Routing with Routing Options: Steady State,

Kinematic Wave and Dynamic Wave
The following steps are used to select a set of adjustments
to apply to SWMM5:
1) Enter the latitude and longitude coordinates of your
location if available or its 5-digit zip code. SWMM-CAT
will display a range of climate change outcomes for the
The SWMM 3 and SWMM 4 converter can convert up CMIP3 results closest to your location.
to two les from the earlier SWMM 3 and 4 versions at
one time to SWMM 5. Typically you would convert a 2) Select whether to use climate change projections based
Runo and Transport le to SWMM 5 or a Runo and on either a near term or far term projection period. The
Extran File to SWMM 5. If you have a combination of displayed climate change outcomes will be updated to rea SWMM 4 Runo, Transport and Extran network then ect your choice.
you will have to convert it in pieces and copy and paste 3) Select a climate change outcome to save to SWMM.
the two data sets together to make one SWMM 5 data There are three choices that span the range of outcomes
set. The x,y coordinate le is only necessary if you do produced by the dierent global climate models used in
not have existing x, y coordinates on the D1 line of the the CMIP3 project. The Hot/Dry outcome represents a
SWMM 4 Extran input data[ set. You can use the com- model whose average temperature change was on the high
mand File=>Dene Ini File to dene the location of the end and whose average rainfall change was on the lower
ini le. The ini le will save your conversion project input end of all model projections. The Warm/Wet outcome
data les and directories.
represents a model whose average temperature change

10

SWMM 3,4 to 5 converter

10

14

SEE ALSO

was on the lower end and whose average rainfall change 13 SWMM platforms
was on the wetter end of the spectrum. The Median
outcome is for a model whose temperature and rainfall A number of software packages use the SWMM5 platchanges were closest to the median of all models.
form. These include:
4) Click the Save Adjustments to SWMM link to bring
up a dialog form that will allow you select an existing
EPA-SWMM
SWMM project le to save your adjustments to. The
form will also allow you to select which type of adjust PCSWMM
ments (monthly temperature, evaporation, rainfall, or 24 InfoSWMM
hour design storm) to save. Conversion of temperature
and evaporation units is automatically handled depend XPSWMM
ing on the unit system (US or SI) detected in the SWMM
le.
GeoSWMM
Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis
H2OMapSWMM
SWMMLive
Giswater

14 See also
Figure 4. The EPA SWMM5 Climate Change Program

12

EPA stormwater
based on SWMM5

calculator

Other external programs that aid in the generation of

data for the EPA SWMM 5 model include: SUSTAIN,
BASINS, SSOAP and the EPAs National Stormwater
Calculator (SWC) which is a desktop application that estimates the annual amount of rainwater and frequency of
runo from a specic site anywhere in the United States
(including Puerto Rico). The estimates are based on local
soil conditions, land cover, and historic rainfall records
(Figure 5).

SWAT model
Stochastic empirical loading and dilution model
WAFLEX
DSSAM model
Hydrology
Inltration
Hydraulics
Surface runo
Drainage basin
Precipitation (meteorology)
Antecedent moisture
Evapotranspiration
EPANET
Rainfall
Hydrological transport model
Computer simulation
Water pollution

Figure 5. The EPA stormwater calculator for simulating longterm runo with LID and climate change.

Water quality
Surface-water hydrology

11

15

References

[1] Metcalf and Eddy, Water Resources Engineers, and University of Florida 1971. Storm Water Management
Model, US EPA, Washington, D.C. Vol. I - Final Report, 11024DOC 7/71. Vol. II - Verication and Testing,
11024DOC 8/71. Vol. III - Users Manual, 11024DOC
9/71. Vol. IV - Program Listing, 11024DOC 10/71.
[2] Huber, W. C., J. P. Heaney, M. A. Medina, W. A. Peltz,
H. Sheikh, and G. F. Smith. 1975. Storm Water Management Model Users Manual, Version II. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio.
[3] Huber, W. C., J. P. Heaney, S. J. Nix, R. E. Dickinson, and D. J. Polmann, 1981. Storm Water Management
Model. Users Manual Ver. III, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
[4] Huber, W. C. and R. E. Dickinson, 1988, Storm Water
Management Model. Users Manual Ver. IV, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
[5] Roesner, L.A., R.E. Dickinson and J.A. Aldrich (1988)
Storm Water Management Model Version 4: Users
Manual Addendum 1 EXTRAN; Cooperative Agreement CR-811607; U.S.EPA; Athens, Georgia.

Mike Urban based on SWMM 5.0.022

InfoWorks CS Imports and exports SWMM 5.0.022
DigitalWater CS(In Chinese) based on SWMM
5.0.022
FLO-2D PRO based on SWMM 5.0.022
Giswater open-source software, optimized for
SWMM 5.0.022 but it also works with SWMM
5.1.007

17 External links
EPA National Stormwater Calculator - SWMM 5
Based
EPA SWMM 5.1.007 page
SWMM 3,4 to 5 Conversion Tools
SWMM 2000+
PAGINA DE SWMM EN CASTELLANO

[6] Rossman, Lewis A., Storm Water Management Model

Users Manual, EPA/600/R-05/040, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH (June 2007)

Pre SWMM 5.1.010 Installs

[7] Rossman, Lewis A., Storm Water Management Model

Quality Assurance Report, Dynamic Wave Flow Routing,
EPA/600/R-06/097, September 2006

CHI SWMM4/5 Knowledge Database

16

SWMM 5 Vendors

InfoSWMM, Suite, 2D and Sustain based on

SWMM 5.1.009
H20MAP SWMM based on SWMM 5.1.009
PCSWMM Professional 2D based on SWMM
5.1.009
InfoWorks ICM and ICM SE Imports and exports
SWMM 5.1.009
InfoWorks ICMLive Imports and exports SWMM
5.1.009
SWMMLive based on SWMM 5.1.009
GeoSWMM based on SWMM 5.0.022, Model can
be exported to SWMM 5.0.022
XPSWMM based on SWMM 5.0.022
SewerGEMS based on SWMM 5.0.022
h3O based on SWMM 5.0.022
Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis based on
SWMM 5.0.022

CHI Journal of Water Management Modeling

CHI SWMM5 Code Viewer

12

18

18
18.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Storm Water Management Model Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Water_Management_Model?oldid=681944472 Contributors: Bearcat, Rholton, Alan Liefting, Orlady, Femto, Giraedata, Pearle, TheParanoidOne, Kbdank71, Ground Zero, Bgwhite,
Cholmes75, Tony1, Peter, SmackBot, Brian1979, Bluebot, DHN-bot~enwiki, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, OrphanBot, Deccantrap,
Anlace, Ehheh, CmdrObot, Myasuda, Dickinsonre, RobertSWMM, Magioladitis, Rich257, CommonsDelinker, CardinalDan, Shaunus4,
Funandtrvl, VolkovBot, ABF, Lightmouse, Tsgrue, Moreau1, DumZiBoT, XLinkBot, Addbot, Red1000, Yobot, Legobot II, Tebarnard,
J04n, Erik9bot, FrescoBot, John of Reading, CHI PCSWMM, GeorgeBarnick, Matt.Anderson.PE, Calidum, GEGranato, ChrisGualtieri,
Maeenul, WRCJ and Anonymous: 37

18.2

Images

File:A_screen_capture_of_the_EPA_Stormwater_Calculator.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/

A_screen_capture_of_the_EPA_Stormwater_Calculator.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: A screen capture of the EPA Stormwater Calculator made by myself after downloading the software from the EPA Original artist: Dickinsonre
File:Infiltration_trench_(6438020585).jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Infiltration_trench_
%286438020585%29.jpg License: CC BY 2.0 Contributors: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtzecosan/6438020585/ Original artist:
SuSanA Secretariat
File:Intensive_extensive_green_roofs.png Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Intensive_extensive_
green_roofs.png License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: KVDP
File:Main_Street_Tree_Planter,_Miles_City_(281991376).jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/
Main_Street_Tree_Planter%2C_Miles_City_%28281991376%29.jpg License: CC BY 2.0 Contributors: Main Street Tree Planter, Miles
City Original artist: David Schott from Redmond, Washington, USA
File:NapervilleSWMM5.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/NapervilleSWMM5.png License: Public
domain Contributors: Own work. Original artist: Dickinsonre, SWMM software by EPA (Public Domain).
File:Rain_garden_(2014).JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Rain_garden_%282014%29.JPG License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: James Steakley
File:SWMM5LIDFeatures51.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/SWMM5LIDFeatures51.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: In powerpoint Original artist: Dickinsonre
File:Swmm5_master_network.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/Swmm5_master_network.jpg License: PD
Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:The_is_screen_capture_of_the_EPA_SWMM_Climate_Change_Program.png Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/1/18/The_is_screen_capture_of_the_EPA_SWMM_Climate_Change_Program.png License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Contributors: This is made by me using screen capture software of the GUI for the SWMM-CAT program. It is made my me and not by
someone else Original artist: Dickinsonre

18.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0