Abstract:
Due to the increased frequency of extreme events caused by climate change, flooding in urban areas are
becoming increasingly frequent. The village of Agualva, located in Terceira Island (Azores, Portugal), suffered a
severe flood on the early morning of 15th of December 2009 caused by a short-duration and extreme intensity
rainfall event. This village lies on the downstream part of the basin of the Ribeira da Agualva, with the majority
of buildings and main roads located in the water course floodplain which together with several bridges reduce
the water stream cross-section. During the flood event several areas were momentarily cut-off by the excessive
water on the roads and collapse of some bridges. The reproduction of this event is of upmost importance in
order to understand their dynamics and consequently develop emergency plans for future similar situations,
such as accessibility maps and evacuation routes. This paper presents a methodology to calibrate a model to
reproduce the scenario of flooding cited above based on measured rainfall in a nearby rain-gauge and observed
maximum water-depths, and presents accessibility maps and evacuation routes. The Storm Water Management
Model (SWMM) was used to obtain the water depths along the road-network and water course.
