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Hydraulic engineering
Published in Mohammad Albaji, Introduction to Water Engineering, Hydrology, and Irrigation, 2022
Stormwater is rainwater and melted snow that runs off streets, lawns, and other sites. When stormwater is absorbed into the ground, it is filtered and ultimately replenishes aquifers or flows into streams and rivers. In developed areas, however, impervious surfaces such as pavement and roofs prevent precipitation from naturally soaking into the ground. Instead, the water runs rapidly into storm drains, sewer systems, and drainage ditches and can cause: downstream flooding, stream bank erosion, increased turbidity (muddiness created by stirred up sediment) from erosion, habitat destruction, changes in the streamflow hydrograph (a graph that displays the flow rate of a stream over a period of time), combined sewer overflows, infrastructure damage, contaminated streams, rivers, and coastal water.
Best Management Practices as an Alternative Approach for Urban Flood Control
Published in Saeid Eslamian, Faezeh Eslamian, Flood Handbook, 2022
Stormwater best management practices, or stormwater control measures, are engineered landscape structures and operational plans and policies implemented to reduce stormwater peak rate of flow, total volume, and water pollution. They are particularly valuable in urban settings because growing city populations can potentially generate ever-increasing amounts of stormwater while increasing local exposure and vulnerability. Structural BMPs achieve stormwater flow goals by infiltration, detention, retention, and evaporation. These same processes may also contribute to water quality improvement, as do a host of other physical, chemical, and biological processes particularly promoted by plant life. Non-structural BMPs focus on the prevention of stormwater runoff and pollutant exposure. As non-structural methods often eliminate problems before they develop, they can be quite cost-effective. They commonly use water-smart operating/maintenance procedures, land-use planning and regulation, or public education to achieve water management goals.
Use of Wetlands for Urban Stormwater Management
Published in Donald A. Hammer, Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment, 2020
Objectives of stormwater management are to (1) provide surface drainage, (2) control floods, (3) control erosion and sedimentation, (4) reduce pollutants in runoff, and (5) provide aesthetic amenities, including open space, recreation, and waterfront property. To achieve these goals, the volume, rate, timing, and pollutant load of runoff after development must be similar to pre-development conditions. A stormwater management system must be an integral part of the site planning process for every project. Natural site attributes (soils, geology, slope, water table) will influence the type and configuration of the stormwater system. For example, sandy soils accommodate infiltration practices, while natural low areas and isolated wetlands offer opportunities for detention/wetland treatment. A stormwater management system should be viewed as a treatment train in which individual best management practices (BMPs) are the cars. The more BMPs included in the system, the better the performance of the train.
Drones in urban stormwater management: a review and future perspectives
Published in Urban Water Journal, 2019
Urban stormwater runoff is a significant threat to human and ecological health across the world. To address this threat, many governments have put forth regulations that require municipalities or industries to obtain a permit for their stormwater discharge by demonstrating how they are reducing pollution from stormwater runoff. However, with continued urbanization, a changing climate, and uncertain performance of stormwater best management practices, urban stormwater runoff remains a significant environmental challenge. For example, despite three decades of regulatory action in the U.S., many of the nation’s waters are still impaired from urban non-point source runoff (U.S. EPA 2019). These impairments highlight the significant challenge of responsibly managing urban stormwater, as well as the knowledge gap between management actions and their impact on pollution processes in stormwater systems (Wagner 2005; Liu et al. 2017). Much of this is due to a lack of engineering tools and resources that can support stormwater management programs in meeting their pollution reduction goals. As cities continue to address stormwater runoff, it is imperative that we consider new and innovative approaches to stormwater management.
Urban water trading – hybrid water systems and niche opportunities in the urban water market – a literature review
Published in Environmental Technology Reviews, 2019
Mario Schmack, Martin Anda, Stewart Dallas, Roberta Fornarelli
Another potential avenue for water trading is via developing private markets for green stormwater infrastructure as demonstrated in Philadelphia. A key prerequisite for this system is by implementing a stormwater billing system that charges non-residential customers a monthly stormwater fee based on the impervious area on their parcel [120]. Substantial fee discounts are offered to owners who reduce impervious areas or manage runoff onsite through the adoption of infiltrating green infrastructure (GI). This leads to ongoing operating savings to non-residential property owners in the form of reduced stormwater bills, beyond the pay-off period of GI retrofits. Dougherty, Hammer [121] outline how the requirement for on-site stormwater retention as a condition of construction permit approval could develop into a stormwater credit trading platform. In order to fulfil these requirements, property owners who cannot comply by building all needed stormwater GI on their land, can meet a part of their requirements by buying stormwater credits from their peers. The authors suggest that due to their flexibility credit trading programmes can create equal or better water quality outcomes than a simple on-site retention requirement.
Investigation of water quality in combined recycled water and stormwater systems
Published in Urban Water Journal, 2018
M.P. Perera, A.W.M. Ng, S. Muthukumaran, J. O’Connor, B.J.C Perera
Stormwater is the runoff generated from storm events, and increases the generated volume with the impervious area added from the development. Singapore has been harvesting urban stormwater runoff to supplement its water supply for more than 20 years (Lim et al. 2011). In Australia, there are large stormwater harvesting projects such as the Kalkallo project in Melbourne, the Troups Creek project in Melbourne and the Coomera Waterfuture project in Queensland. Projects using both recycled water and treated stormwater in one integrated system have the potential to increase the security of supply and improve water efficiency by using water supplies and water storages more effectively. According to Singapore’s National Water Agency (PUB 2014), recycled water (up to 2.5% of the total daily potable water consumption) is added into the raw stormwater reservoirs before undergoing conventional treatment to produce potable water. The Atlantis Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) system in Cape Town, South Africa, has recharged an aquifer using combined recycled and stormwater for more than 20 years. Managing water quality and, in particular, salinity has been one of the greatest challenges of this system (Tredoux et al. 2011). Combination of treated waste water with stormwater, which has usually low salt content compared to waste water, is one solution to control the aquifer water quality.