Predicting nonpoint stormwater runoff quality from land use

Abstract

Evaluating the impact of urban development on natural ecosystem processes has become an increasingly complex task for planners, environmental scientists, and engineers. As the built environment continues to grow, unregulated nonpoint pollutants from increased human activity and large-scale development severely stress urban streams and lakes resulting in their currently impaired or degraded state. In response, integrated water quality management programs have been adopted to address these unregulated nonpoint pollutants by utilizing best management practices (BMPs) that treat runoff as close to the source as possible. Knowing where to install effective BMPs is no trivial task, considering budget constraints and the spatially extensive nature of nonpoint stormwater runoff. Accordingly, this paper presents an initial, straightforward and cost-effective methodology to identify critical nonpoint pollutant source watersheds through correlation of water quality with land use. Through an illustrative application to metropolitan Denver, Colorado, it is shown how this method can be used to aid stormwater professionals to evaluate and specify retrofit locations in need of water quality treatment features reduce, capture and treat stormwater runoff prior to entering receiving waters.

Hydrophilic trace organic contaminants in urban stormwater: occurrence, toxicological relevance, and the need to enhance green stormwater infrastructure

“…• Assessment tools exist to predict runoff concentrations of sediments, nutrients, and metals in non-point stormwater runoff based on land use data. 213 More extensive monitoring data of hyphil-TrOCs in urban stormwater will help to evaluate whether such prediction tools can be developed for organic contaminants.…”

Correlations of Stormwater Runoff and Quality: Urban Pavement and Property Value by Land Use at the Parcel Level in a Small Sized American City

“…In the stormwater quality quantification Models (6)- (8), ALV x is the adjusted pollution loading value for pixel x; POL x is the standard pollutant loading coefficient based on the land use and land cover; HSS x is the hydrologic sensitivity score, which is estimated by I x as the runoff index and I w as the mean runoff index in the watershed of interest. Once per pixel pollution loads are generated, the amount of downstream pixel retention can be calculated as surface runoff carrying the pollutant toward the stream.…”

“…When the stormwater flows over impervious surfaces, it accumulates contaminants and sediment that impact water quality drastically [4,5]. However, how stormwater runoff quantity and quality, land pavement, and property values are correlated on the land parcel level of different land uses is unclear [6][7][8].…”

“…Remote sensing is a relatively inexpensive and constructive method for reconstructing a base map in the absence of detailed land survey methods, but conditions under the urban tree canopy cannot be detected accurately. The variability of nonpoint urban water quality runoff with respect to different land use procedures poses challenges in making an effective stormwater management plan [8]. Furthermore, private landowners typically make land development decisions not necessarily for the public-good from the regional perspective, but in the owner's private interest at the parcel level and in the forms of building, road, sidewalks, or parking lots, all of which are impervious surfaces [41,42].…”

Watershed of a small river as source of contaminants and biogenic elements

“…The mentioned consequences of the contaminated urban storm water runoff illustrate the necessity of effective implementation of storm water management to control pollution sources and the volumes of the storm water runoff. These actions can include creation of green infrastructure, green roofs, and grassed swales to decrease erosion and the percentage of impervious surface covers, elaboration of sedimentation control (ESC) measures, land use controls, minimizing directly connected impervious areas, creation buffer and filter strips, infiltration practices (basins and trenches), swirl-type concentrators, storm water drainage wells and other methods [4][5][6][7].…”