FLOOD ANALYSIS: LEVEE DESIGN IN POLO RIVER

CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

INTRODUCTION

Valenzuela is one of the fast growing cities in the country of Philippines and is one of the

safest cities to live in. However, there is one big problem that this city cannot solve. Flood, by

research and statistics, the city of Valenzuela is one of the most flooded cities when a typhoon is

present. In 2009, a disaster occurred and almost washed up everything in the places that were

affected named Ondoy flooded 97% of the barangays in the city of the Valenzuela. According to

Soriano (2009), “In the aftermath of Ondoy, most of the attention was focused on Marikina and

Quezon City, which suffered the highest death toll in metropolitan Manila. But the cities of

Valenzuela and Muntinlupa were found to have experienced the worst flooding, with 90 percent

of their barangays under water.”[1] Thus, this happening wakes the eyes of the Valenzuela that it

has to do something about this issue. Levees might be the answer that the Valenzuela is looking

for. This research aims to find a solution to the concerning issue of floods in the city of

Valenzuela.

1
Soriano, J. (2009, October 5). Valenzuela most severely flooded from Ondoy. Retrieved from
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/173870/valenzuela-most-severely-flooded-from-ondoy/story/
ROLE OF THE STUDY

Flood have been always a burden to the major citizens of the city of Valenzuela as the

areas that were always affected were not only the main access roads for the commercial,

educational, industrial and health institutional needs of the city and other barangays that have a

low level of elevation.

These institutions are located nearby this main access roads that is said to be and can

observably flooded most of the time when it is rainy season. As students, the researchers suffers

from the burden of being stranded and being stuck on a heavy traffic because of a road is

unpassable due to flood. Same as for those other citizens that do business or goes to work or just

want to have a normal convenient day and a walk to the park.

WHY THE RESEARCHES WORK ON THE STUDY

As fellow valenzuelanos, the researchers are motivated to have a convenient and

comfortable travel life within the city. And as a student of a free educational institution namely

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela, the researchers treat this study as a giving back for the

city government for providing them an important opportunity to study as civil engineering

students with high quality for free. Unlike those universities outside the city that offers highly

priced education. And also for giving back to the individuals such as parents or guardians that

supported and guided the way of the researchers with everything what they can offer in order for

the researchers to have a quality education.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

In this study, the researchers aim to come up a design of a levee that will help decrease

the chance of flooding in the city of Valenzuela in order to further increase the productivity and

to further rise the city’s current financial state and also to provide a more convenient and

comfortable travel life.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This section will provide brief description on the various significances of the study of

Levee in the Polo River

To the residents nearby Polo River. The proposed design will primarily serve the

residents near the proposed construction site of the Levee as prevention of over-flooding from

rivers.

To the office of Valenzuela city. The proposed design serves the barangay/city officials

and personnel as their reference in constructing the Levee.

To the future researchers. The proposed study will help the future researchers as their

guide. Additionally, this will open developments regarding the construction of Levees.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION

This study aims to resolve the flood city in Valenzuela but limits only in dealing within

the extents of the Polo River.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Flood is always the problem that decreases the city of Valenzuela’s rate of productivity

and also for the extreme effect, loss of life may happen. In order to resolve this problem, the

researchers must first understand the problem, what causes it and then how can it be resolved.
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDY

This chapter includes the review of related literature and studies which the researchers

gathered to have more understanding in the research area. This chapter emphasizes ideas,

generalization or conclusions, and methodologies from other related literature and government

projects to fully understand and analyze the research. This chapter is composed of both local and

foreign review of related literatures and studies.

Flood

According to National Geographic, “A flood occurs when water overflows or inundates

land that's normally dry. This can happen in a multitude of ways. Most common is when rivers or

streams overflow their banks. Excessive rain, a ruptured dam or levee, rapid ice melting in the

mountains, or even an unfortunately placed beaver dam can overwhelm a river and send it

spreading over the adjacent land, called a floodplain. Coastal flooding occurs when a large storm

or tsunami causes the sea to surge inland.”[2] The definition states that the most common cause of

flood is overflowing of river, thus the researchers chose to focus studying around the Polo River.

Causes

Further discussing the factors that affects the rate of flooding in an area, according to

Wikipedia, there are three factors that affects the chances of flooding namely, upslope factors,

downslope factors and coincidence.

2
National Geographic (n.d.). Flood. Retrieved January 10, 2018 from
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/floods/
Upslope factor

For the upslope factor, (“Flood,” n.d., para. 11) states that to determine the flow at

downstream locations, the amount, location and timing of the surface of water reaching drainage

channel from rainfall and controlled or uncontrolled excess. Also, “Most precipitation records

are based on a measured depth of water received within a fixed time interval. Frequency of a

precipitation threshold of interest may be determined from the number of measurements

exceeding that threshold value within the total time period for which observations are available.

Individual data points are converted to intensity by dividing each measured depth by the period

of time between observations. This intensity will be less than the actual peak intensity if the

duration of the rainfall event was less than the fixed time interval for which measurements are

reported. Convective precipitation events (thunderstorms) tend to produce shorter duration storm

events than orographic precipitation. Duration, intensity, and frequency of rainfall events are

important to flood prediction. Short duration precipitation is more significant to flooding within

small drainage basins. (“Flood,” n.d.)”[3]

Downslope factor

According to (“Flood,” n.d., para. 14) “Water flowing downhill ultimately encounters

downstream conditions slowing movement. The final limitation is often the ocean or a natural or

artificial lake. Elevation changes such as tidal fluctuations are significant determinants of coastal

and estuarine flooding. Less predictable events like tsunamis and storm surges may also cause

elevation changes in large bodies of water. Elevation of flowing water is controlled by the

geometry of the flow channel. Flow channel restrictions like bridges and canyons tend to control

3
Flood. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 10, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood#cite_note-10
water elevation above the restriction. The actual control point for any given reach of the drainage

may change with changing water elevation, so a closer point may control for lower water levels

until a more distant point controls at higher water levels.”4

Coincidence

According to (“Flood,” n.d., para. 15) “Extreme flood events often result from

coincidence such as unusually intense, warm rainfall melting heavy snow pack, producing

channel obstructions from floating ice, and releasing small impoundments like beaver dams.

Coincident events may cause extensive flooding to be more frequent than anticipated from

simplistic statistical prediction models considering only precipitation runoff flowing within

unobstructed drainage channels. Debris modification of channel geometry is common when

heavy flows move uprooted woody vegetation and flood-damaged structures and vehicles,

including boats and railway equipment. Recent field measurements during the 2010–11

Queensland floods showed that any criterion solely based upon the flow velocity, water depth or

specific momentum cannot account for the hazards caused by velocity and water depth

fluctuations. These considerations ignore further the risks associated with large debris entrained

by the flow motion.”5

4
Flood. (n.d., para. 14). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 10, 2018, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood#cite_note-10
5
Flood. (n.d., para. 15). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 10, 2018, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood#cite_note-10
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Introduction

This chapter includes the research methodology of the indicated research. In more details,

in this part the researcher outlines the research strategy, the research method, the research

approach, and the methods of data collection.

Research Design

The research design shows an important aspect of conducting research which reflects the

entire research process. This would facilitate the researcher in understanding the methods that

would use to gather data from sources. The research strategy to be applied will further evaluate

and utilize the already formulated hypotheses.

We collect related literatures concerning levee design and construction from primary and

secondary sources. Primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object,

person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness

accounts, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art

objects. And secondary sources that are generally scholarly books and articles. Then, we decided

to review and combine all the collected information and data concerning levee and formulate a

systematic design and construction that can be apply to the research setting specifically in Polo

River. We conceptualized our ideas into a computer-aided design program used for 2-D and 3-D

design and drafting namely AutoCAD. Then, transfer it in Sketch UP, a 3D modeling computer

program for a much more detailed design.

 The data to be collected that will help the researchers analyze the matter are topographic

data from NAMRIA (National Mapping Resource Information Authority), rainfall data from

PAGASA-DOST (Philippines Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services

Administration – Department of Science and Technology), cross-section of the said river from

the water resource district office of Valenzuela.

Research Setting

The research setting can be seen as the physical, social, and cultural site in which the

researcher conducts the study. The research is to be conducted in Polo River wherein the data to

be collected are within the said place itself.