Physically based modeling of stormwater pipe leakage in an urban catchment

•Stormwater pipe flow-soil-groundwater (GW) flow model applied on urban catchm. scale.•Impact of pipe leakage on urban GW is investigated under dry and rain conditions.•GW infiltr. in pipes may be as large as GW recharge and may reduce GW levels by meters.•Temporal distribution of a rain event has no effect on pipe leakage.