A New Method for Estimating Water-Quality Flows
Publication: Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment
Volume 9, Issue 4
Abstract
Water-quality flow (WQF) is used as the basis for designing some stormwater control measures. The conventional method for determining the WQF incorporates several assumptions that do not reflect reality. A method is presented for determining the WQF that does not require the main limiting assumptions. Specifically, the proposed method utilizes measured durations of the water-quality rainfall, local rainfall statistics, and representative infiltration characteristics of the catchment. The proposed method is demonstrated at two locations in south Florida. Defining the 90-percentile rainfall depth as the water-quality rainfall (WQR), the results show the WQR to be in the range of 3.4–3.9 cm, with corresponding average event durations in the range of 9.4–9.7 h. Most importantly, the results show that the actual WQF can be substantially greater than the WQF calculated using the conventional method, with correction factors in the range of 1.9–9.6 for a range of practical conditions.
Practical Applications
Some stormwater control measures (SCMs) such as biofiltration swales and vegetated filter strips are designed based on WQFs. The conventional method of determining the WQF includes certain assumptions that result in an underestimation of the WQF, and hence an underdesign of SCMs. The proposed method for determining the WQF does not require the limiting assumptions while maintaining the underlying physics of the runoff process. Utilization of the proposed method for calculating design WQFs should lead to more effective water-quality control by SCMs.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The available data are the rainfall records.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment
Volume 9 • Issue 4 • November 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 22, 2023
Accepted: Jul 5, 2023
Published online: Jul 25, 2023
Published in print: Nov 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Dec 25, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Climates
- Engineering fundamentals
- Environmental engineering
- Flow (fluid dynamics)
- Flow measurement
- Fluid dynamics
- Fluid mechanics
- Hydrologic engineering
- Hydrology
- Infiltration
- Mathematics
- Measurement (by type)
- Meteorology
- Precipitation
- Rain water
- Rainfall
- Rainfall duration
- Statistics
- Stormwater management
- Water (by type)
- Water and water resources
- Water flow
- Water management
- Water quality
- Water treatment
Authors
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