SMART’s Flood Detection System A sophisticated and modern Flood DetectionSystem (FDS) provides real time floodforecasting information. This enables theefficient and safe management at the operationof the tunnel. The SMART FDS Modeling Systemis comprised of hydrological and hydrodynamicmodels, a database and scheduler. The hydro-logic rainfall-runoff model provides a warningtime for tunnel opening using real-time rainfallinformation from upper catchments and thesurrounding areas to predict stream flows. Thehydrographs produced from the rainfall-runoffmodel are automatically input to the hydrody-namic model. The model is fully integrated usingscheduler program to extract all relevant data forinput to the model and run the model in aseamless fashion. The time series managerdatabase interacts with the SCADA system toachieve all data collected from the monitoringsites (refer to figure 2).

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SMART is an innovative project of theGovernment of Malaysia to solve floodingproblem in the City Center of Kuala Lumpur. TheSMART project has been a great challenge forthe local engineers involved in management andconstruction as it runs below congested roads,near sensitive structures and through variedgeological ground conditions. The project alsoserves to ease the traffic congestion problembetween Kuala Lumpur City Center and Southerngateway at Sungai Besi. A unique feature ofSMART is the 3 km double-deck motorway in themiddle section of the 9.7 km stormwater tunnelwhich starts near the Kampung Pandan round-about in the city center, and ends at KualaLumpur-Seremban Highway next to the TUDMAirfield at Sungai Besi.

After the major 1971 floods, the MalaysianGovernment constructed several flood mitigation

works such as the Batu Dam, Klang Gates Dam,widened and deepened Klang River and GombakRiver including concrete channelization. Theprojects were completed in early 1990s, butfloods continue to occur in the city center ofKuala Lumpur, triggering the government tosearch for a smarter solution.

As experienced by the residents and businesseson several occasions, Kuala Lumpur get floodedeasily even after just a couple of hours of heavyrain. Studies showed that the major flood-proneareas are along the Klang River between theconfluence of the Klang River and the AmpangRiver, and the confluence of the Gombak Riverand the Klang River. Since it was not possible towiden the flood plain of the river because ofdevelopments along the riverbank, the only alter-native is to hold and divert the floodwaterupstream before it reaches the critical areas.Planning the SMART was against the traditionalsolutions available at that time after consideringfactors such as the high land acquisition cost,insufficient space to widen the river channel, andthe complex social and environmental issues thatwould involved in the construction of floodmitigation dam.

The SMART project was implemented jointly bythe Department of Irrigation and DrainageMalaysia and Malaysian Highway Authority as theexecuting government agencies. The constructionof the project started 1st January 2003 and wascompleted on the 30th June 2007 with the totalcost of RM 1.933 Billion (0.48 Billion US Dollars).

STORMWATER MANAGEMENTAND ROAD TUNNEL (SMART)FLOOD DETECTION SYSTEM, OPERATIONAND PERFORMANCE BY ROSLINA YUSOP, AMIRUDDIN ALALDIN & NOR AZAZI ZAKARIA

Figure 2. Schematic Layout of SMART

Figure 3.SMART’sCatchmentMonitoringSystem

Figure 4. FDS SMARTOPERATIONMANAGEMENT

Figure 1. Typical Tunnel Cross-Section at TrafficCompartment

The SMART Tunnel will be one of the Technical Visits of the 37th IAHR World Congress

in Kuala Lumpur!

IAHR

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2012. One of the gauging stations in theAmpang River catchment recorded very highrainfall, 227 mm in 4 hours which exceeds the100 year Average Recurrence Interval (ARI). The Klang River catchment recorded rainfall of 111 mm which is close to the 100 year ARI. The average rainfall for the overall SMART’scatchment was 133 mm as shown in Figure 7.

The maximum Flow at the confluence of KlangRiver and Ampang River reached 475 m3/swhen the flood water was diverted into theholding pond. A total volume of 3.3 Million cubicmeters of floodwater was successfully divertedthrough the SMART structures. Klang River inthe city center was overtopped by only 15 cmfor 27 minutes during the major storm event.

SMART has successfully performed underdesign storm conditions and saved millions inflood damage costs, thus serving its purpose inreducing stormwater that flow through the citycenter. SMART is only one part of the KualaLumpur flood mitigation program and operatestogether with the other programs to reduceflood risk in Kuala Lumpur. n

References:JPS SMART, 2008. Functional Specification FDS Modelling System.

Hydra Electric Corporation.

Based on the predicted hydrograph from thehydrologic model and measured data such aswater level, flows and control gate position fromthe field, the hydraulic modeling components ofthe FDS predicts flood level and dischargeswithin the SMART system and the surroundingrivers, and also predicts SMART control gateand pump operation. The predictions provideinformation to aid the tunnel operators indecision making regarding the operation of theSMART system. One hydraulic model is used inthe FDS which encompasses both the hindcastand forecast components of the hydraulicmodel. The model automatically switches fromhindcast operation to forecast operation basedon a trigger contained in a time-series file whichis generated by the FDS. For hindcast operationthe model uses measured flows and gate levelsup to the “now” time. For forecasting the modeluses the forecast flood hydrographs and theSMART gate and pump operation rules.

Event Statistics – 272 DiversionEvents until December 2015 Since SMART establishment, there had been272 heavy rainfall events and flood water diver-sion operations from July 2007 until December2015. Five (5) of the events were major floodevents and the system was operated underMode IV of SMART’s Standard Operation Proce-dure.

SMART Has Successfully PerformedUnder Design Storm Situation The largest storm event occurred on March 7,

Ir. Roslina Yusop startedworking at the Depart-ment of Irrigation andDrainage Malaysia in1993. She receivedBachelor of Science in

Civil Engineering from the University ofHartford, Connecticut U.S.A in 1988, and aMaster of Science in Water Engineeringfrom Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2004. Shehad more than 10 year’s experiences in thefield of hydrology, hydraulic and flood fore-casting. During her career, she was also in-volved in planning, design and manage-ment of drainage and irrigation projects.Her recent position is the Deputy Directorfor SMART Storm water Control Center.

Ir. Amiruddin Alaldinstarted working with DIDin 1992 and had spentthe first 12 years workingwith flooding issues inthe southern and cental

regions of Malaysia. He completed his MSc.in Information Management in 2003 thus as-suming the head of information Manage-ment and Corporate Relations before beingpromoted as Director of Performance AuditDivision where he spent most of the effortsin ensuring the DID core business outputsare delivered with the highest efficiencyand effectiveness whilst utilizing economi-cal and optimized resources. His next chal-lenge was to oversee the implementationof 14 mega projects costing RM1.5 billionsunder the Special Projects Division beforebeing made the Director of Operation forSMART Control Center.

Prof. Dr. Nor Azazi Zakaria has served in Uni-versiti Sains Malaysiasince 1994. He then established the River En-gineering and Urban

Drainage Research Centre (REDAC) in 2001and has since remained as the Director. Hismain research interests are Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems and River Man-agement. Dr. Nor Azazi is the leading re-searcher in the innovation of Bio-ecologicalDrainage System (BIOECODS), and is nowan established figure in the field ofstormwater management at national and in-ternational levels. He sits in the ExecutiveCommittee for Malaysian National Commit-tee on Irrigation and Drainage (MANCID)and Malaysia Stormwater Organization(MSO), as well as IAHR APD.

Figure 5. SMARTOperation Modes

Figure 7. Isohyets Map Showing Rainfall Patternfor Event on 7 March 2012

Figure 6. Event Statistics