Assessing Hydrologic Change in Surface-Mined Watersheds Using the Curve Number Method
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 16, Issue 7
Abstract
The U.S. Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 requires that mine operators minimize disturbances to the prevailing hydrologic balance of surface-mined sites and associated off-site areas through land reclamation. The hydrologic evaluation to support this requirement is often performed using the curve number (CN) rainfall-runoff method. Accurate application is limited by a scarcity of tabulated CN values for reclaimed mine lands, and assumptions regarding the hydrologic behavior of reclaimed mine lands may be inaccurate. Four watersheds (three reclaimed surface coal mines and one forested reference) in the Georges Creek basin of western Maryland were instrumented for rainfall and runoff. CNs calculated for the reclaimed mine land watersheds using rainfall and runoff data () were generally higher than CNs estimated by prevailing engineering methods (). The general agreement of these results with other studies indicates that a more conservative hydrologic approach may be warranted in engineering design and hydrologic analysis of surface-mined lands. These results also indicate that surface mining and reclamation may have similar hydrologic impacts as urbanization. Whereas urbanized landscapes typically feature engineered storm water management to mitigate hydrologic change, these features are typically absent on reclaimed mine lands.
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Acknowledgments
The authors sincerely acknowledge the contributions of Tim Negley, Mac Sloan, and Jeff Griffith in collecting and analyzing hydrologic data from the four study watersheds. The research was funded by grants to Appalachian Laboratory from A.W. Mellon Foundation (1999–2005), Maryland Bureau of Mines (2004–2005), and NASANASA (2006–2010). This paper is scientific contribution 4465 from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 16 • Issue 7 • July 2011
Pages: 575 - 584
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 8, 2009
Accepted: Oct 12, 2010
Published online: Oct 28, 2010
Published in print: Jul 1, 2011
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