Evaluating Urban Pollutant Buildup/Wash-Off Models Using a Madison, Wisconsin Catchment
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 136, Issue 2
Abstract
Buildup/wash-off (BUWO) models are widely used to estimate pollutant export from urban and suburban watersheds. Here, we propose that the mass of washed-off particulate during a storm event is insensitive to the time between storm events (the traditional predictor of particulate accumulation in BUWO models). Our analysis employed USGS data of total suspended solids and discharge data for nonsnow events in a suburban catchment in Madison, Wis. Kinetic energy of rainfall was calculated using National Weather Service NEXRAD radar reflectivity. A regression analysis found that storm event runoff volume and rainfall kinetic energy explained 81% of the variability in event particulate load; volume alone explained 69% of the variability in event loads. Time between storm events was not significant. Additionally, we simulated storm event particulate loads using a BUWO model and a model assuming a constant mass available for wash-off. Both models produced very similar predictions over a range of parameterizations, suggesting that buildup models could perhaps be simplified under many circumstances.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
ASCE, Task Committee on Hydrology Handbook. (1996). Hydrology handbook. ASCE manual and reports of engineering practice no. 28, ASCE, New York.
Ashley, R. M., Wotherspoon, D. J. J., Coghlan, B. P., and McGregor, I. (1992). “The erosion and movement of sediments and associate pollutants in combined sewers.” Water Sci. Technol., 25(8), 101–114.
Brodie, I., and Rosewell, C. (2007). “Theoretical relationships between rainfall intensity and kinetic energy variants associated with stormwater particle washoff.” J. Hydrol., 340(1–2), 40–47.
Butler, D., and Davies, J. W. (2000). Urban drainage, E & FN Spon, London, 101.
Charbeneau, R. J., and Barrett, M. E. (1998). “Evaluation of methods for estimating stormwater pollutant loads.” Water Environ. Res., 70(7), 1295–1302.
Chen, J., and Adams, B. J. (2007). “A derived probability distribution approach to stormwater quality modeling.” Adv. Water Resour., 30, 80–100.
Cruse, R., et al. (2006). “Daily estimates of rainfall, water runoff, and soil erosion in Iowa.” J. Soil Water Conservat., 61(4), 191–199.
Driscoll, E. D., Palhegyi, G. E., Strecker, E. W., and Shelley, P. E. (1989). Analysis of storm event characteristics for selected rainfall gauges throughout the United States, EPA, Washington, D.C.
Easton, Z. M., Marchant, G. -P., Walter, M. T., Petrovic, A. M., and Steenhuis, T. S. (2007). “Identifying dissolved phosphorus source areas and predicting transport from an urban watershed using distributed hydrologic modeling.” Water Resour. Res., 43, W11414.
Egodawatta, P., Thomas, E., and Goonetilleke, A. (2007). “Mathematical interpretation of pollutant wash-off from urban road surfaces using simulated rainfall.” Water Res., 41, 3025–3031.
Huber, W. C., and Dickinson, R. E. (1988). “Storm water management model, version 4: Users manual.” Rep. No. EPA 600/3-88/001a, Environmental Research Laboratory, EPA, Athens, Ga.
Jain, M. K., Kothyari, U. C., and Raju, K. G. R. (2005). “GIS based distributed model for soil erosion and rate of sediment outflow from catchments.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 131(9), 755–769.
Kalin, L., and Hantush, M. M. (2006). “Hydrologic modeling of an eastern Pennsylvania watershed with NEXRAD and raingauge data.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 11(6), 555–569.
Kenney, B. C. (1982). “Beware of spurious self-correlations!” Water Resour. Res., 18(4), 1041–1048.
Krajewski, W. F., and Smith, J. A. (2002). “Radar hydrology: Rainfall estimation.” Adv. Water Resour., 25(8–12), 1387–1394.
Laws, J. O., and Parsons, D. A. (1943). “The relation of rain drop size to intensity.” Trans., Am. Geophys. Union, 24, 452–460.
Ogden, F. L., Sharif, H. O., Senarath, S. U. S., Smith, J. A., Baeck, M. L., and Richardson, J. R. (2000). “Hydrologic analysis of the Fort Collins, Colorado, flash flood of 1997.” J. Hydrol., 228(1–2), 82–100.
Reeves, R. L., Grant, S. B., Morse, R. D., Copil Oancea, C. M., Sanders, B. F., and Boehm, A. B. (2004). “Scaling and management of fecal indicator bacteria in runoff from a coastal urban watershed in Southern California.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 38, 2637–2648.
Rinehart, R. E. (1991). Radar for meteorologists, Rinehart, Grand Forks, N.D.
Salles, C., Poesen, J., and Sempere-Torres, D. (2002). “Kinetic energy of rain and its functional relationship with intensity.” J. Hydrol., 257(1–4), 256–270.
Sansalone, J. J., and Buchberger, S. G. (1997). “Partitioning of first flush metals in urban roadway storm water.” J. Environ. Eng., 123(2), 134–143.
Sartor, J. D., and Boyd, G. B. (1972). “Water pollution aspects of street surface contaminants.” Rep. No. EPA-R2-72-081, EPA, Washington, D.C.
Selbig, W. R., and Bannerman, R. T. (2007). “Evaluation of street sweeping as a stormwater-quality-management tool in three residential basins in Madison, Wisconsin.” USGS Scientific Investigations Rep. No. 2007-5156, USGS, Madison, Wis.
Shivers, D. E., and Moglen, G. E. (2008). “Spurious correlation in the USEPA rating curve method for estimating pollutant loads.” J. Environ. Eng., 134(8), 610–618.
Sivakumar, B. (2004). “Dominant processes concept in hydrology: Moving forward.” Hydrolog. Process., 18, 2349–2353.
Sivapalan, M., Bloschl, G., Zhang, L., and Vertessy, R. (2003). “Downward approach to hydrologic prediction.” Hydrolog. Process., 17, 2101–2111.
Smith, J. A., Baeck, M. L., Meierdiercks, K. L., Nelson, P. A., Miller, A. J., and Holland, E. J. (2005). “Field studies of the storm event hydrologic response in an urbanizing watershed.” Water Resour. Res., 41, W10413.
Soonthornnonda, P., and Christensen, E. R. (2008). “A load model based on antecedent dry periods for pollutants in stormwater.” Water Environ. Res., 80(2), 162–171.
Sutherland, R. C., and Jelen, S. L. (2003). “Stormwater quality modeling improvements needed for SWMM.” Practical modeling of urban water systems monograph 11, W. James, ed., CHI, Guelph, Ontario, 253–289.
Tsihrintzis, V., and Hamid, R. (1998). “Runoff quality prediction from small urban catchments using SWMM.” Hydrolog. Process., 12, 311–329.
USEPA. (1983). “Results of the nationwide urban runoff program.” Final Rep. No. NTIS PB84-185552, Vol. I, USEPA, Washington, D.C., 6–11.
Van Dijk, A. I. J. M., Bruijnzeel, L. B., and Rosewell, C. J. (2002). “Rainfall intensity—Kinetic energy relationships—A critical literature appraisal.” J. Hydrol, 261(1–4), 1–23.
Vaze, J., and Chiew, F. H. S. (2003). “Comparative evaluation of urban storm water quality models.” Water Resour. Res., 39(10), 1280.
Vaze, J., and Chiew, F. H. S. (2004). “Nutrient loads associated with different sediment sizes in urban stormwater and surface pollutants.” J. Environ. Eng., 130(4), 391–396.
Vogel, R. M., Rudolph, B. E., and Hooper, R. P. (2005). “Probabilistic behavior of water-quality loads.” J. Environ. Eng., 131(7), 1081–1089.
Willems, P. (2006). “Random number generator or sewer water quality model?” Water Sci. Technol., 54(6–7), 387–394.
Wischmeier, W. H., and Smith, D. D. (1958). “Rainfall energy and its relationship to soil loss.” Water Sci. Technol., 39(2), 285–291.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 18, 2009
Accepted: Aug 14, 2009
Published online: Aug 18, 2009
Published in print: Feb 2010
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.