Comparison of Measured and Simulated Urban Soil Hydrologic Properties
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 24, Issue 1
Abstract
Urban communities use hydrologic models to plan for and assess the effectiveness of stormwater control measures. Although emphasis is placed on soils as permeable surfaces that regulate the rainfall-runoff process, representative soil hydrologic parameters for urban areas are rare. The extent to which measured and commonly simulated hydrologic data may differ is also largely uncharacterized. As part of the US EPA urban soil assessment, infiltration and drainage rates were measured in 12 cities, and the authors compared these measured data to estimates generated from the EPA National Stormwater Calculator (NSWC), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO), and USDA Rosetta. The analysis highlights the overall lack of soil hydrologic data for many cities in the NSWC and SSURGO and show that common prediction algorithms for infiltration and drainage poorly represent urban soil hydraulics. Paired comparison of field-measured values and model-estimated values resulted in root-mean-square errors ranging from 23 to . These findings are presented in the context of planning for effective stormwater and wastewater management practices, and the need for confirming simulation results with site-specific field data.
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Acknowledgments
Mention of trade names, products, or services does not convey, and should not be interpreted as conveying, official EPA approval, endorsement, or recommendation. This research was performed while LAS held an NRC research associateship appointment at the National Risk Management Research Laboratory within the Office of Research and Development of the US Environmental Protection Agency. We thank Barbara Butler and Robert Ford as well as two anonymous reviewers for taking the time to review this manuscript.
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Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 24 • Issue 1 • January 2019
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©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 12, 2017
Accepted: Mar 13, 2018
Published online: Oct 27, 2018
Published in print: Jan 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Mar 27, 2019
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