J O U RN A L OF E N V I RO N ME N TA L SC IE N CE S 5 9 (2 0 1 7) 3 9–4 7

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect
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Street floods in Metro Manila and possible solutions

Alfredo Mahar Lagmay1,2,⁎, Jerico Mendoza2 , Fatima Cipriano2 , Patricia Anne Delmendo2 ,
Micah Nieves Lacsamana2 , Marc Anthony Moises2 , Nicanor Pellejera III 2 ,
Kenneth Niño Punay2 , Glenn Sabio2 , Laurize Santos2 , Jonathan Serrano2 ,
Herbert James Taniza2 , Neil Eneri Tingin2
1. National Institute of Geological Sciences, University of the Philippines, Quezon City 1101, Philippines
2. Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards Phil-LiDAR 1 Flood Modelling Component, UP NIGS, Quezon City 1101, Philippines

AR TIC LE I N FO ABS TR ACT

Article history: Urban floods from thunderstorms cause severe problems in Metro Manila due to road
Received 14 December 2016 traffic. Using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-derived topography, flood simulations
Revised 1 February 2017 and anecdotal reports, the root of surface flood problems in Metro Manila is identified.
Accepted 6 March 2017 Majority of flood-prone areas are along the intersection of creeks and streets located in
Available online 10 March 2017 topographic lows. When creeks overflow or when rapidly accumulated street flood does not
drain fast enough to the nearest stream channel, the intersecting road also gets flooded.
Keywords: Possible solutions include the elevation of roads or construction of well-designed drainage
Flood modeling structures leading to the creeks. Proposed solutions to the flood problem of Metro Manila may
LiDAR avoid paralyzing traffic problems due to short-lived rain events, which according to Japan
Urban flooding International Cooperation Agency (JICA) cost the Philippine economy 2.4 billion pesos/day.
© 2017 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Published by Elsevier B.V.

Introduction Apart from devastating floods like those spawned by Tropical

Metro Manila is located on an isthmus between the Manila
Bay and Laguna de Bay. The entire region is composed of one
major catchment called the Marikina River Basin, which
covers 535 km2, and eight smaller, river sub-basins, which
cover 683 km2 that drain directly into Manila Bay and Laguna
de Bay. The Marikina, Pasig, San Juan and Tullahan rivers
serve as the main outlets for a network of tributaries of the
Marikina River Basin and smaller catchments of Metro Manila
(Fig. 1). Highly urbanized and populated by almost 12 million
residents (Cox, 2011), the metropolis lies on one of the widest
floodplains in the Philippines.
Storm Ondoy in 2009 (Lagmay et al., 2010) and the typhoon-
enhanced southwest monsoon rains in 2012, 2013 (Lagmay et al.,
2014) and 2014, more frequent floods caused by short-lived
thunderstorms are also a problem. Once parts of the road
network are blocked by floods, traffic develops and paralyzes the
entire city. According to JICA, traffic jams due to thunderstorm-
related flashfloods costs PhP 2.4 billion a day from wasted
gasoline and lost economic productivity (Rodis, 2014).
Flashfloods are traditionally blamed on the loss of infiltra-
tion due to urban concrete, a century-old drainage system,
and clogged streams. This study analyses nuisance floods
caused by brief, heavy downpours. It identifies other factors to

⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: amfal2@yahoo.com (A.M. Lagmay).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2017.03.004
1001-0742/© 2017 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V.
40 J O U RN A L OF E N V I RO N ME N TA L SC IE N CE S 5 9 (2 0 1 7) 39–4 7

Fig. 1 – Metro Manila natural drainage. (A) Location of Metro Manila, (B) administrative boundaries of component cities and
(C) watersheds and tributaries.

find relatively inexpensive solutions to flood-generated traffic where V is the average velocity in m/sec, h is the flow depth in
problems. meters, and i is the excess rainfall intensity in mm/24 hr. Other
variables are slope (S), acceleration due to gravity (g), pressure

1. Methods Table 1 – Metro Manila Development Authority list of

flood-prone places in Metro Manila.
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) released Street name City
a list of flood-prone areas in the National Capital Region
1. Espana–Antipolo–Maceda Manila
(Table 1), verified by accounts collected from photographs 2. P. Burgos (City Hall) Manila
posted in social media. 3. R. Papa, Rizal Avenue Manila
Crowd-sourced data (Fig. 2a) were overlaid on a 100-year 4. Buendia Extension–Macapagal Avenue Manila
rain return flood-hazard map (Fig. 2b, NOAH, 2013). 5. Buendia–South Superhighway (northbound) Manila
LiDAR-derived topography was used to create profiles of the 6. Buendia–South Superhighway (southbound) Manila
7. Osmeña–Skyway (northbound) Makati
main roads in these areas, as well as profiles of the road sides. A
8. Makati Makati
Roces Street and CP Garcia Avenue in the University of the
9. Don Bosco Makati
Philippines (UP) were also examined. Field work was also 10. EDSA Pasong Tamo, Magallanes Makati
conducted to check the drainage crossing the streets in those 11. West Service Road, Merville Paranaque
areas. 12. East Service Road–Sales street Muntinlupa
Floods were simulated in FLO-2D GDS PRO using the St. Venant 13. McKinley Road Taguig
equations for continuity and momentum (Eqs. (1) and (2)) and 14. C-5 Bayani Road Taguig
15. C-5–BCDA Taguig
the finite-difference scheme to compute flood velocities:
16. C-5 Bagong Ilog Pasig
∂ðVhÞ ∂ðhÞ 17. EDSA–SM Megamall Mandaluyong
þ ¼i ð1Þ 18. EDSA–Camp Aguinaldo Gate 3 Quezon
∂ðxÞ ∂ðtÞ
19. Quezon Ave.–Victory Ave./Biak na Bato Quezon
20. NLEX–Balintawak Cloverleaf Quezon
V 1
∂ðVÞ ∂ðVÞ 21. North Avenue fronting Trinoma Mall Quezon
∂ðhÞ g g
S ¼ S− − − ¼0 ð2Þ 22. EDSA–North Avenue Quezon
∂ðxÞ ∂ðxÞ ∂ðtÞ
23. Philcoa area Quezon
 J O U RN A L OF E N V I RO N ME N TA L SC IE N CE S 5 9 (2 0 1 7) 3 9–4 7
Fig. 2 – Flood-prone areas (a) plotted by netizens, and (b) overlain on a flood map.
gradient ∂ðhÞ ∂ðVÞ ∂ðVÞ
∂ðxÞ , and the local ð ∂ðtÞ Þ and convective ðV ∂ðtÞ Þ
accelerations. These are solved using the finite-difference
scheme to get the velocity across the boundaries in eight
potential flow directions of every grid element.
The simulations used 1 × 1 m LiDAR-derived elevation data.
The floodplains were delineated into catchment areas based on
the flow direction and accumulation. Manning's coefficient of
0.03 was assigned to streams, which is the normal value for
main channels (Chow, 1959), and 0.15 to the floodplains which
are predominantly concrete. Inflow and outflow nodes were
assigned based on where the water flows in from the upper
watershed and out through the main stream channel.
Rainfall is simulated as a non-point source carrying water
throughout the model. Once flood-prone areas were identified
from the 100-year flood-hazard map, higher-resolution simu-
lations in sub-basins of concern were conducted for short-
lived thunderstorms. An hour of rainfall with intensities of 30–
70 mm/hr was used to simulate thunderstorms. Observations,
road profiles and flood simulations revealed the causes of street
flooding and indicated appropriate solutions.
2. Results
2.1. Intersection of creeks and streets
The flood-prone areas list and flood-hazard maps show floods
at intersections of streets and creeks, and at ponded areas
such as Padre Burgos in Manila (Fig. 2). Road profiles reveal
that they follow topographic lows and are not significantly
elevated from roadsides and creek banks (Appendix A). R.
Papa is lower than the roadside and lies below the tops of
three stream segments. EDSA-North Avenue floods at its
lowest portion, which follows the topography of a 250-m wide,
1-m high channel.
41
Five sites have bridges (Appendix A): Philcoa, R. Papa, C-5
Bagong Ilog, Osmeña–Skyway, and Don Bosco. The street at
Philcoa stands 3.8 m above the creek bottom with a rectangular,
2.37 × 4.4-m culvert perpendicular to the road and two circular,
1 m-diameter culverts parallel to the road. R. Papa is 1.38 m
above the creek bottom. In C-5 Bagong Ilog, the street is
3.92 m above the stream bottom. Along Osmeña–Skyway is a
22.3-m bridge 3.34 m below street level. A stream with its bed
4.5 m below South Luzon Expressway in the Don Bosco area is
drained by a parallel 4 × 2.5-m drainage structure. Eight places
do not seem to have drainage networks, which could be masked
by overlying concrete.
2.2. Roads in UP Diliman
Both UP creeks are headwaters of a drainage network. A Roces
is 4 m and CP Garcia is 1.25 m above the banks (Fig. 3). In CP
Garcia, there appears to be a bigger channel, where the road is
lower in elevation than the bank of the creek. While it is built
up above the lowest portion of the channel, it is still below
the main channel banks and remains susceptible to flooding
(Fig. 3). The streets each have two 1 m-diameter culverts.
A Roces is sufficiently elevated to avoid flooding even
when the creek swells, as during Typhoon Ketsana in 2009.
In contrast, CP Garcia is flooded and impassable even during
short-lived torrential thunderstorms. Here, flood depths reached
1 m during Ketsana, and are around 0.9 m during brief
thunderstorms.
2.3. Thunderstorm flash-flood scenarios
Floods during short-duration thunderstorms block traffic, as
exemplified by four sites in the MMDA list: Bayani Road,
Taguig City, Victory Avenue, Quezon Boulevard, R. Papa
Street, Manila, and EDSA–North Avenue (Fig. 4).
42 J O U RN A L OF E N V I RO N ME N TA L SC IE N CE S 5 9 (2 0 1 7) 39–4 7
Fig. 3 – Profiles of (a) A Roces Street and (b) CP Garcia Avenue. Transect a–a′ is brown in the profile; transect b–b′ is green. (c) A
Roces and CP Garcia creek during (d) summer and (e) a short-lived thunderstorm.
Bayani Road starts to flood knee-deep after 40 mm of rain,
and floods are waist-high when rain delivers 70 mm. Victory
Avenue starts to flood gutter-deep at 40 mm, knee-deep after
60 mm, and tire-deep after 70 mm. R. Papa begins to flood
gutter-deep across three sections with 50 mm of rain and
reaches half-tire-deep with a 70 mm rain. EDSA–North Avenue
begins to flood at 40 mm and reaches tire-level with intensities
of 60 mm. Snapshots of simulations for the other 18 MMDA
flood-prone areas are provided as supplementary files in the
Appendix.
3. Discussion
Metro Manila floods are classified into those that endanger
people, and those that merely cause traffic jams. Not all of
Metro Manila is flood-prone. Floods generate traffic jams only
in specific areas and may be eliminated with relatively
low-cost solutions.
Many flood-prone areas are where streets and creeks
intersect; others are areas where water accumulates. The
roads in UP campus present two contrasting scenarios: A
Roces hardly ever floods whereas CP Garcia gets inundated
during severe weather as well as short-lived thunderstorms
(Fig. 3). These show that the construction of roads relative to
the elevation of intersecting creeks affects whether or not
the roads get flooded. Roads that follow topographic lows,
even if they are above the creek's bank, should have enough
clearance or freeboard to accommodate creek swelling
(Fig. 5). Small streams may oftentimes be dry or nearly dry,
but they, too, can swell and overtop their banks (Fig. 4).
Roads above creeks, therefore, must be designed and
constructed in the same manner as roads that cross large
rivers.
In the Philippines, flood-control design is governed by
technical standards based on flood-frequency expressed by
return periods which are based on the size of the catchment
area, importance of the project area, and economic viability
(JICA, Japan International Cooperation Agency and DPWH,
Department of Public Works and Highways, 2003). Ideally,
discharge values are calculated through runoff analysis. When
available, annual maximum-flood data are analyzed as a more
convenient alternative. In the absence of these two data sets,
the return period is determined using rainfall data. A Rainfall
Intensity Duration Frequency (RIDF) curve is utilized in calcu-
lating discharge for catchment areas below 20 m2 using the
Rational Formula Method (Kuichling, 1889; Viessman and
Lewis, 1995; Eq. (3)):
Q ¼ciA ð3Þ
where Q is the discharge in cm, c is the runoff coefficient, i is
rainfall intensity in mm/hr and A the drainage area in m2.
 J O U RN A L OF E N V I RO N ME N TA L SC IE N CE S 5 9 (2 0 1 7) 3 9–4 7 43

Fig. 4 – Inundation scenarios for short-lived thunderstorms. Flood depths are classified based on the MMDA flood gauge.
(Ankle ≤ 0.1 m, gutter ≤ 0.201 m, half-knee ≤ 0.255 m, half-tire ≤ 0.331 m, knee ≤ 0.484 m, tires ≤ 0.661 m, waist ≤ 0.941 m,
chest ≤ 1.144 m).

Fig. 5 – Cartoon of inundation of a road with a design that follows the topography as it crosses the creek and where the road is
elevated relative to the creek banks. Blue circles are culverts.
44 J O U RN A L OF E N V I RO N ME N TA L SC IE N CE S 5 9 (2 0 1 7) 39–4 7
Culverts and lateral drains, understandably, are not
designed for unusually big floods. Short-lived thunderstorms
(i.e. >/30 mm/hr), however, flood the streets as well.
The theoretical discharge of the creek intersecting the road
in Philcoa was computed using the Rational Method (Eq. (3)).
Philcoa is one of the places in the MMDA list of flood-prone
areas. The calculations for 1 hr of rain with intensity of
70 mm/hr yielded a value of 29.95 cm. This is still below the
87 m3/sec discharge capacity of the culvert obtained with
Manning's equation (Gauckler, 1867; Manning, 1891; Chanson,
2004) (Eq. (4)):
1 2 1
Q ¼A  R3  S2 ð4Þ
n
where A is its inner cross-sectional area in m2, n is the
Manning's coefficient, R is the hydraulic radius in m, and S is
the stream bed slope obtained through LiDAR topography.
Concrete box culverts have a Manning's n of 0.012–0.015. The
latter was used for a more conservative computation.
Despite the capacity of the culvert, field interviews revealed
that street floods happen even during brief thunderstorms. The
culvert filled only during Typhoon Ketsana, showing that other
factors play important roles in generating thunderstorm-
related floods.
One and a half hour simulations using 70 mm/hr rainfall
were conducted to determine those factors. The rain was
distributed over the first 60 min of the simulation. Flooding
begins at 33 min and peaks at 39 min, then slowly decreases
and drains fully at 90 min. Peak discharge at the culvert inlet
happens at 57 min when the flood along the road has
already started to wane, much later than the street flood
(Fig. 6).
Fig. 6 – Simulation of flood at Philcoa showing the start of flooding along the road at 33 min, peak flooding along the road at
39 min, peak discharge at the culvert's inlet at 57 min, and full flood subsidence along the road at 90 min.
The hydrograph (Fig. 7) reaches its low after peak flow at
1 hr and 20 min then rises again. Water draining into the
culvert causes the initial rise; the succeeding rise is caused by
flow from farther reaches of the watershed.
The absence of information regarding subsurface drainage
in Philcoa was addressed through field work. In the simulation,
a 1 m × 1 m drain connects directly with the creek, mimicking
the unexposed lateral drainage.
In the model, even if the culvert can handle the discharge
of surface flow from heavy downpour, knee-high flooding still
occurs for 24–30 min, then subsides until it ends after another
30 min. Flow into the topographic low is faster than into the
creek. Inasmuch as the creek never fills during short-lived
thunderstorms even when the culvert is partially clogged
with garbage, the problem is really not the culvert, but the
impervious low-lying road.
A Roces Ave. in UP Diliman, provides a possible solution: a
hydraulic structure under the street large enough to accommo-
date the volume of water, which is equivalent to the area
covered by the flood multiplied by the height of inundation,
which for Philcoa is only knee-high. The street surface must
have steel mesh drains to accommodate the runoff that
accumulates almost instantaneously in the topographic low.
Ideally, the subsurface water retention area should drive flow
into the creek. Constructing it below the street, if structurally
feasible, avoids right-of-way problems.
The proposed solution is simulated. Since the Flo-2D model
cannot simulate flow below the street, an alternative model was
generated. A DEM (Digital Elevation Model) with open strips
paralleling the street and sloping towards the creek was used to
simulate subsurface flow. The simulation result shows that all
the flood water was confined in the strips, which means that the
 J O U RN A L OF E N V I RO N ME N TA L SC IE N CE S 5 9 (2 0 1 7) 3 9–4 7 45

Fig. 7 – Hyetograph and runoff hydrograph for the simulation. Peak rainfall occurred at 30 min. Peak discharge occurred at
57 min. and reached a low point 1 hr before beginning to rise again.

road will not flood (Fig. 8). This model can be used to determine Although only one example of discharge analysis was
the appropriate surface infiltration of the street, and the depth presented, the findings could be applied to other places in
and slope of the subsurface drain needed. Metro Manila. They can be used for other creek and street

Fig. 8 – Simulation result for the proposed solution for urban floods caused by short-lived but intense thunderstorms. The
image shows all the flood water confined in the excavated strips with no flood on the road. Excavated strips as well as the
creek culvert are underground, which means that the road surface is also not flooded.
46 J O U RN A L OF E N V I RO N ME N TA L SC IE N CE S 5 9 (2 0 1 7) 39–4 7
intersections with culverts (e.g. Don Bosco) since they
have similar geometry. For ponded areas like in Padre
Burgos in Manila and at EDSA Pasong Tamo, retention
basins can also be made under the street and pumped out
after the thunderstorm. However, at EDSA Pasong Tamo,
this type of intervention may be difficult as there is an
overpass in the area. High volume pumps are necessary to
transfer floodwaters from this area into an adjacent
retention basin.
4. Conclusions
Metro Manila's floods are compounded by many factors
including encroachment of concrete surfaces, densification of
buildings and residential areas, silting of riverbeds and canals,
obstruction of waterways by informal settlers, clogging of
floodways by garbage, narrowing of rivers due to development
on floodplains, draining and filling in of small rivers forcing
more water into fewer channels, forest degradation, and
reclamation of coastal land. Furthermore, humans have altered
the landscape in the metropolis which has grown rapidly but
with poorly planned urbanization. Since the 1970's, people have
migrated from rural areas to Metro Manila increasing the
population from 4.9 million residents in 1975 to more than
11 million today. A survey by the National Housing Authority
showed that by the early 1980s, a quarter of Metro Manila
residents were informal settlers living in crowded shantytowns
many along waterways. Further complicating the problem is
ground subsidence. From 1978 to 2000, parts of Metro Manila
sank by an amount ranging from 16 cm to 1.46 m. The probable
causes of subsidence are excessive groundwater extraction, soil
compaction and tectonic movement, though more research is
needed to fully determine the primary causes (Lagmay et al.,
2010).
Floods in the metropolis can be life threatening or a nuisance
because of the traffic they generate. Traffic problems related to
urban surface floods from short-lived rain events can cost the
Philippine economy P2.4 billion pesos a day. This study
identified the root causes of street floods from both severe
weather events and brief but heavy downpour from thunder-
storms using 2D flood simulations. Street floods in Metro
Manila do not happen everywhere but are mainly found at
intersections of streets and creeks. Further analysis reveal that
street floods occur at the lowest portion of the street or
topographic lows. During severe weather events such as the
Ondoy, Habagat 2012, Habagat 2013 and Habagat 2014 floods,
creeks in the 23 areas listed by MMDA as flood-prone, swelled
and overtopped its banks. This led to inundation of streets,
which closely followed the landscape down to the banks of the
creeks. On the other hand, short-lived heavy downpour
(30 mm/hr) accumulate water in the low-lying areas faster
than it can drain through the culvert along the creek. Streets in
the MMDA list still get inundated even though the drainage
design of the culvert below the street has greater discharge
capacity than the theoretical discharge expected to flow
through the stream channel. In places where there are no
creeks, floods are due to ponding of water in the low-lying areas.
Proposed solutions to street floods in many of the places in the
flood-prone list by MMDA include the elevation of roads and
construction of a retention basin under the street big enough to
accommodate the volume of water. The size of the retention
basin is equivalent to the simulated area covered by the flood
along the street multiplied by the height of inundation. The
street above the proposed retention basin must have enough
infiltration capacity to accommodate the rapidly accumulated
rainfall. The retention basin must also be designed to directly
drain into the nearest stream channel. The latter solution or its
equivalent may not completely address big floods spawned by
severe weather events but may solve frequent street floods
from short-lived thunderstorms. These proposed solutions may
avert increased gas consumption and lost potential income
from traffic jams during floods, which costs the Philippine
economy 2.4 billion pesos a day, a figure that may balloon to
6 zbillion a day by the year 2030.
Acknowledgments
This is to acknowledge the Philippine Council for Industry,
Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development
(PCIEERD). Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for
funding the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards
(NOAH) program, particularly the DREAM Flood Modelling
Component Project.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2017.03.004.
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