Case Study of Simulation of Heat Export by Rainfall Runoff from a Small Urban Watershed Using MINUHET
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18, Issue 8
Abstract
The influence of urban development on the volume of storm water runoff and on water temperature, and the associated impact on streams in urban watersheds, has generated a need for tools to predict the temperature of urban storm water runoff, particularly for the assessment of future urban development. To address this need, the Minnesota Urban Heat Export Tool (MINUHET) model was developed to simulate the flow of heat and storm water through a small urban watershed for a rainfall-runoff event. The tool includes process-based hydrological and thermal models for runoff from developed, undeveloped, or vegetated land uses, for various components of drainage networks, and for some best management practices such as detention and infiltration ponds, storm water vaults, and rock cribs. The primary output of MINUHET is a time series of the flow rate and temperature of runoff, which can be used to determine the heat content of the runoff at the outlet of the modeled watershed and aid in the assessment of the thermal impact on receiving waters. This paper provides an overview of the hydrologic and heat transfer processes simulated by MINUHET and presents a case study in which MINUHET is applied to a 5.06-hectare (12.5-acre) residential neighborhood in Plymouth, Minnesota for which runoff flow and temperature data were available for a series of rainfall events. The model was manually calibrated to several parameters, including saturated hydraulic conductivity, Manning’s roughness, and thermal diffusivity and heat capacity of asphalt. Runoff flow rate, runoff temperature, and heat export (heat content of the runoff relative to a specified reference temperature) were accurately simulated for a total of four rainfall events using the calibrated parameters. A sensitivity analysis of the model revealed that simulations were especially sensitive to dew point (rainfall) temperature, rainfall rate and saturated hydraulic conductivity, and to thermal properties and thickness of asphalt. These results illustrate the importance of both data quality and a truthful representation of the modeled watershed in producing accurate simulations with MINUHET.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for providing funding for this work, and Bruce Wilson, who served as the project officer. We also thank Jon Beatty and Brant Buchika, formerly of the Minnetonka Audio Software Company, for creating the user interface for MINUHET. James Johnson, formerly of the Three Rivers Park District, collected data for the Plymouth study, and Shahram Missaghi of the City of Plymouth provided plan drawings of the site, from which values of several model input parameters were determined. A part of this work was funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Graduate Fellowship Program. EPA has not officially endorsed this publication and the views expressed herein may not reflect the views of the EPA.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 18 • Issue 8 • August 2013
Pages: 995 - 1006
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 21, 2011
Accepted: Aug 7, 2012
Published online: Jul 15, 2013
Published in print: Aug 1, 2013
Discussion open until: Dec 15, 2013
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