Water Circulation System of a Sunken Plaza Based on the Concept of a Sponge City Utilizing Groundwater
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 28, Issue 11
Abstract
The use of a natural and low-impact way of managing surface water and groundwater in a sunken plaza is meaningful for urban ecological development. To achieve water storage, purification, and recycling, this study investigated a water circulation system in a sunken plaza based on the groundwater and surface water transformation and combination. A joint water-stop curtain system was constructed with underground continuous walls, RC wall, building main structure, adjacent support structure, and waterproof stratum at the bottom of the main structure. On the basis of the stratum data and parameters of the study area, a three-dimensional (3D) groundwater model was built using FEFLOW 7.5 comparing the actual groundwater level monitoring data from the field pumping test with the simulation data, the accuracy of the model was verified, and the water volume change of the sunken plaza was calculated. The low permeability of the curtain system calculated by a field test and the numerical model proved that the pumping activities in the sunken plaza had extremely low impact on the groundwater level outside the plaza. On the basis of this result, the pumping and seepage wells and water quality and quantity observation wells were designed scientifically and rationally. The purification and circulation control of water were realized in combination with rainwater, drainage, landscape, paving, and other facilities. According to the circulation system designed in this study, the annual water recycling capacity of the sunken plaza can reach more than , and the total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) indicators in the rainwater can be reduced by more than 15% on average. The sunken plaza area forms a small spongy body that realizes water circulation, economic benefits, and ecological functions for the first time using groundwater storage. The developed method can be used for the water circulation and ecological construction of sunken plazas with similar geological environments.
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Data Availability Statement
All data used during the study are proprietary to the authors’ organizations and cannot be shared at this time because the data also form part of an ongoing study.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their sincere gratitude to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42077178) for supporting this study. Special thanks are given to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their critical comments which improved the quality of the manuscript.
Author contributions: Huali Chen: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, supervision, resources, validation, writing—original draft, review and editing. Long Zhang: resources, data curation. Gang Chen: writing—review and editing. Maoze Shao: data curation. Xianwu Zheng: data curation. Huijun Liu: writing—review. Ting Wang: writing—review and editing. Cheng Hu: writing—review and editing.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 28 • Issue 11 • November 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 9, 2022
Accepted: Jul 14, 2023
Published online: Sep 14, 2023
Published in print: Nov 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Feb 14, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Engineering fundamentals
- Environmental engineering
- Field tests
- Hydrologic engineering
- Hydrologic properties
- Hydrology
- Infrastructure
- Models (by type)
- Practice and Profession
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Sustainable development
- Tests (by type)
- Three-dimensional models
- Underground structures
- Urban and regional development
- Urban areas
- Water and water resources
- Water circulation
- Water management
- Water storage
- Water supply
- Water supply systems
- Water treatment
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