EPA SWMM Urban Drainage Modelling Training Course

Course overview

Urban drainage teams need defensible answers when a catchment floods, a new development increases runoff, or a drainage upgrade must be prioritised against limited capital budgets. EPA SWMM is widely used for these decisions, but credible results depend on more than drawing pipes and pressing Run. Practitioners must convert survey, GIS, rainfall, land-use and asset information into a model with justified assumptions, stable hydraulics, and outputs that decision-makers can understand.

This five-day EPA SWMM Urban Drainage Modelling Training Course develops the practical workflow for building, testing and applying urban stormwater models. Participants configure rain gauges and design storms; delineate subcatchments; assign imperviousness, slope, depression storage and infiltration parameters; build conduit, node, outfall, storage and pump networks; and select appropriate routing methods. They also diagnose continuity errors, surcharge and flooding, calibrate models against observed data, assess water-quality loads, and compare upgrade, detention and green-infrastructure scenarios.

Instruction combines guided software demonstrations with progressively developed modelling exercises using EPA SWMM and QGIS. Participants work from a realistic urban catchment dataset, checking data quality, documenting assumptions and interpreting hydrographs, profiles, flood volumes and summary tables. They leave with a completed, reviewed SWMM model package, a scenario comparison workbook, and a short technical briefing that can be adapted for a drainage study, design review or investment proposal.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with drainage assets, stormwater studies, urban development approvals or flood-risk assessments and need to use EPA SWMM confidently in project delivery.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Build an EPA SWMM project from rainfall, catchment, terrain and drainage-network data
• Delineate subcatchments and assign imperviousness, slope, width, depression storage and outlet parameters
• Configure design storms and historical rainfall time series for event-based and continuous simulations
• Select and apply Horton, Green-Ampt and Curve Number infiltration methods using documented parameter assumptions
• Create and test hydraulic networks comprising junctions, conduits, outfalls, storage units, pumps and flow controls
• Diagnose model instability, continuity errors, surcharge and surface flooding using SWMM diagnostic outputs
• Calibrate runoff and hydraulic parameters against observed rainfall, flow and water-level records
• Produce a scenario comparison and technical modelling note for drainage-upgrade or stormwater-control decisions

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Urban Drainage Engineers — who design, assess or prioritise pipe, channel, detention and pumping upgrades
• Stormwater Modellers — who need a repeatable EPA SWMM workflow for catchment and network simulations
• Water and Sanitation Engineers — who assess drainage service levels and flood exposure in urban programmes
• Municipal Infrastructure Planners — who require evidence on drainage capacity and capital-investment options
• Civil Design Engineers — who must demonstrate that proposed developments meet stormwater discharge requirements
• Flood Risk Analysts — who need to translate rainfall-runoff and network constraints into local flood evidence

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with urban drainage concepts, including catchments, runoff, pipe networks, manholes, flow units and design rainfall. Experience reading drainage drawings, GIS layers or asset data is strongly recommended. Basic spreadsheet skills are needed to inspect rainfall, survey and observed-flow data. Prior use of EPA SWMM is not required, but participants should be comfortable working with engineering software and interpreting charts and tables. The course does not require programming, advanced hydrology theory, prior calibration experience, or expertise in QGIS; required GIS steps are demonstrated and practised.

Training methodology

The course is delivered through instructor-led technical briefings, live EPA SWMM demonstrations and hands-on modelling labs using a single urban catchment case. Each day adds a controlled layer to the same project: data preparation, runoff generation, hydraulic routing, calibration and intervention testing. Participants inspect results in tables, hydrographs, profiles and maps, then discuss modelling choices in small peer-review groups. The final session is a project-application workshop in which participants adapt the course workflow, input-data checklist and reporting structure to a current or anticipated drainage assignment.

Course outline

Day 1: Model foundations and catchment representation

• EPA SWMM interface, project settings and simulation options
• Urban drainage modelling objectives, model boundaries and level of detail
• Data inventory for terrain, land use, drainage assets, rainfall and observed records
• QGIS preparation of catchment and drainage-network source layers
• Subcatchment delineation and drainage connectivity
• Subcatchment parameters: area, width, slope, imperviousness and depression storage
• Rain-gauge creation, time-series formatting and design-storm selection

Workshop: Participants build the base map and subcatchment layout for an urban catchment and produce a documented model-input register.

Day 2: Rainfall-runoff processes and hydrologic parameterisation

• Nonlinear reservoir representation of pervious and impervious runoff
• Horton infiltration parameters and field-data interpretation
• Green-Ampt and Curve Number infiltration method selection
• Evaporation, groundwater and snowmelt modules: applicability and limitations
• Rainfall temporal patterns, return periods and hyetograph construction
• Event-based versus continuous simulation design
• Runoff hydrograph review using subcatchment result tables and plots

Workshop: Participants run alternative infiltration and rainfall assumptions, then produce a runoff sensitivity comparison for selected subcatchments.

Day 3: Hydraulic network construction and flood diagnostics

• Junction, outfall, divider and storage-unit configuration
• Conduit geometry, roughness, length corrections and entrance losses
• Dynamic Wave, Kinematic Wave and Steady Flow routing options
• Pumps, orifices, weirs and outlet controls
• Initial conditions, time steps and numerical stability settings
• Continuity error interpretation and model troubleshooting
• Profiles, longitudinal sections, surcharge and node-flooding diagnostics

Workshop: Participants construct and troubleshoot a piped drainage network, producing a profile-based explanation of the first capacity bottleneck.

Day 4: Calibration, validation and stormwater quality assessment

• Calibration strategy, performance criteria and parameter prioritisation
• Observed rainfall, flow and water-level data quality checks
• Hydrograph comparison using peak flow, timing, volume and recession behaviour
• Sensitivity testing and avoidance of compensating parameter errors
• Validation using independent rainfall events
• Buildup and washoff representation for pollutant loads
• Treatment units and pollutant-removal assumptions

Workshop: Participants calibrate a modelled event against observed flow data and prepare a concise calibration and limitations log.

Day 5: Options appraisal, reporting and project application

• Scenario management and reproducible model version control
• Pipe upsizing, storage, detention and conveyance improvement scenarios
• Low-impact development controls: bioretention, permeable pavement, rain gardens and infiltration trenches
• Flood-volume, surcharge-duration and level-of-service comparison metrics
• Climate-change rainfall allowances and uncertainty communication
• Technical reporting with assumptions, limitations, maps, tables and model outputs
• Model review checklists, file handover and decision briefing structure

Workshop: Participants compare baseline and intervention scenarios, then produce a short drainage-options briefing and an application plan for their own work.

Tools & standards covered

EPA SWMM 5.2, QGIS, NOAA Atlas 14, EPA SWMM Reference Manual Volume I—Hydrology

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions