On Tuesday 29 June 2021, two additional rainfall gauges were deployed on the premices of the Lapeyronie University Medical Centre. This makes a total 4 gauges implemented within the Medical Centre. 3 additional gauges will be implemented on 20 July.

On 25 June 2021, the 2nd internal seminar of the Observil National Observation System provided HSM the opportunity to present their treatment of the 10 May storm event over the Verdanson catchment. Presentation to be downloaded here: Séminaire SNO Observil (25 juin 2021) – Présentation de l’Observatoire urbain d’HSM (in French)

Marlène Rio, Christian Salles, Marie-George Tournoud (2021). Modelling the effects of stormwater control measures on runoff volume and particulate load in urban catchments. Urban Water Journal, 18 (2), 79-90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2020.1860236, Link to HAL: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03117171

Abstract. Today, urban stormwater management is moving towards Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs) that encourage water storage and infiltration to reduce urban runoff and contaminant transfer. Modelling tools are required to quantify SCMs benefits at catchment scale. Based on an original method of land cover representation in a rainfall-runoff model, this paper aims at assessing the impacts of permeable pavements and rooftop disconnection on runoff generation and Suspended Solids (SS) wash-off over urban surfaces. Six application catchments are delineated in a densely urbanised area of southern France as representatives of typical urban land uses. The results highlight significant reductions in runoff volume and SS loads, especially for the lowest return periods of the design storm. The scenarios’ benefits are variable among the catchments, emphasising the importance of considering urban space specificities for prioritizing the implementation of SCMs. The proposed method can easily be transposed elsewhere and extended to large urban catchments.

A new step in the development of the high resolution rainfall gauge network. On 20 April 2021, a distance meeting was held with the University hospital centre (CHU). The implementation of new rainfall gauges on the CHU site was granted.

The Urban observatory team will visit the CHU site on 4 May with the purpose of identifying possible locations for the rainfall gauges.

Robin, R. 2021. Calibration du réseau de pluviographes de
l’observatoire HSM « Eau dans la ville ». Rapport de Projet de Fin d’Etudes, Polytech Montpellier (STE). 62 pages. Available here (in French).

Agenda

• Quarterly activity report
• Commitments wrt the SIC (Surfaces & Interfaces continentales) board
• Data workgroup: checkpoint
• Scientific animation

On 17 March, a short meeting will be held at the European Institute for Membranes (EIM). The Urban Observatory will be presented and collaboration paths will be explored.

On 2 February 2021, France 3 Languedoc-Roussillon broadcasted a report about “Montpellier, captital city of water” . Part of it focused on our observation tasks over the Verdanson-Lez catchment.

The shooting took place on 1 February 2021. The sequence features the main two observation tasks at present: high-density rainfall measurement and flow monitoring.

This 30 second sequence can be viewed from 12’19” onward as online streaming in the 2 February 2021 news.

On 18 January 2021, the “Water and the City” meeting gathered 15 participants. The agenda focused mainly on a debate over the developments in 2021.