I am having trouble differentiating between the Urban Flood Risk model and the Stormwater Retention model. Which one would you recommend using? I am hoping to estimate flood protection ecosystem services in urban open spaces/vacant lots. These models seem to have the same objective but different methods/modeling approaches. I appreciate any feedback.
Hi @rdejesuscrespo , welcome to the forums!
You’re right, these two models are related, though they differ a little in their specifics. From the Overview of the Urban Stormwater user’s guide chapter:
Retention, groundwater recharge, and surface runoff are estimated by the model for an annual time scale, rather than that of a single storm event. This is the primary distinction between InVEST’s Urban Stormwater Retention and Flood Risk Mitigation models: the former is intended to assess the more general hydrologic services provided by the landscape in response to a year’s precipitation, in which primary planning concerns are related to surface water quality and water supply, while the latter model is intended to assess the services provided by the landscape in response to a single large (“extreme”) storm event, in which flooding is the primary concern.
Depending on the specifics of your study, you might find one or both of the models to be useful. For example, you might want annual averages (and so would use the Urban Stormwater model), but maybe you also want to model what would happen in a few example storms of varying intensities and rain volumes (using the Urban Flood Risk Mitigation model).
Let us know if you have any further questions about this!
James
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Thank you for your reply. This helps a lot!
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