LAUSR

Urban flooding is a major problem in many coastal cities around the world, mainly caused by factors such as poor urban planning, outdated sewer capacity or high frequent extreme events. In developing countries such as Ecuador, lack of monitoring, financial constraints and absence of proper policies exacerbate flooding problems. The use of the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) helped to identify zones that are flooded even with a 2-year precipitation event at Duran city. Since there are no flood monitoring stations across the study area, model calibration was performed against unofficial records (people complaints, media photographs, and water marks on walls). Model results fairly agreed with those unofficial record. However, a validation process is not achievable yet due to lack of enough flood data even in flood prone areas. To further increase city resilience, authorities and stakeholders should engage in climate actions to raise flood hazard-risk awareness, monitoring hydro-meteorological factors, complement drainage operations with nature-based solutions, and improve hydrodynamic modelling to develop a flood early warning system for the city.