ABSTRACT
The urban water balance ensures conservation of mass of water in the same way the energy balance requires conservation of energy. An accurate representation of the urban water balance through modelling is imperative for the assessment of future sustainable urban water management practices, realistic simulation of urban surface processes and for predicting the effects of climate change. This chapter focuses on hydrological models. After a short review of the available types of urban water balance models, two urban water balance models used in the BRIDGE project SIMGRO and surface urban energy and water balance scheme (SUEWS) are presented. These physically based hydrological models for urban spatial planning are applied in two BRIDGE case study cities, London and Helsinki. Models based on the mass balance are largely used to determine the urban water balance for urban hydrology and water management applications.
