Determination of subcatchment and watershed boundaries in a complex and highly urbanized landscape

Urban development significantly alters the landscape by introducing widespread impervious surfaces, which quickly convey surface run‐off to streams via stormwater sewer networks, resulting in “flashy” hydrological responses. Here, we present the inadequacies of using raster‐based digital elevation models and flow‐direction algorithms to delineate large and highly urbanized watersheds and propose an alternative approach that accounts for the influence of anthropogenically modified land cover. We use a semi‐automated approach that incorporates conventional drainage networks into overland flow paths and define the maximal run‐off contributing area. In this approach, stormwater pipes are clustered according to their slope attributes, which define flow direction. Land areas drained by each cluster and contributing (or exporting) flow to a topographically delineated catchment were determined. These land masses were subsequently added or removed from the catchment, modifying both the shape and the size. Our results in a highly urbanized Toronto, Canada, area watershed indicate a moderate net increase in the directly connected watershed area by 3% relative to a topographically forced method; however, differences across three smaller scale subcatchments are greater. Compared to topographic delineation, the directly connected watershed areas of both the upper and middle subcatchments decrease by 5% and 8%, respectively, whereas the lower subcatchment area increases by 15%. This is directly related to subsurface storm sewer pipes that cross topographic boundaries. When directly connected subcatchment area is plotted against total streamflow and flashiness indices using this method, the coefficients of variation are greater (0.93 to 0.97) compared to the use of digital elevation model‐derived subcatchment areas (0.78 to 0.85). The accurate identification of watershed and subcatchment boundaries should incorporate ancillary data such as stormwater sewer networks and retention basin drainage areas to reduce water budget errors in urban systems.     

Effect of spatial variation characteristics on contouring of design storm depth

The ordinary kriging method, a geostatistical interpolation technique, was applied for developing contour maps of design storm depth in northern Taiwan using intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) data. Results of variogram modelling on design storm depths indicate that the design storms can be categorized into two distinct storm types: (i) storms of short duration and high spatial variation and (ii) storms of long duration and less spatial variation. For storms of the first category, the influence range of rainfall depth decreases when the recurrence interval increases, owing to the increasing degree of their spatial independence. However, for storms of the second category, the influence range of rainfall depth does not change significantly and has an average of approximately 72 km. For very extreme events, such as events of short duration and long recurrence interval, we do not recommend usage of the established design storm contours, because most of the interstation distances exceed the influence ranges. Our study concludes that the influence range of the design storm depth is dependent on the design duration and recurrence interval and is a key factor in developing design storm contours. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Urban stormwater thermal gene expression models for protection of sensitive receiving streams

Thermal impact of typical high‐density residential, industrial, and commercial land uses is a major concern for the health of aquatic life in urban watersheds, especially in smaller, cold, and cool‐water streams. This is the first study of its kind that provides simple easy‐to‐use equations, developed using gene expression programming (GEP) that can guide the assessment and the design of urban stormwater management systems to protect thermally sensitive receiving streams. We developed 3 GEP models using data collected during 3 years (2009–2011) from 4 urban catchments; the first GEP model predicts event mean temperature at the inlet of the pond; the second model predicts the stormwater temperature at the outlet of the pond; and the third model predicts the temperature of the stormwater after flowing through a cooling trench and before discharging to the receiving stream. The new models have high correlation coefficients of 0.90–0.94 and low prediction uncertainty of less than 4% of the median value of the predicted runoff temperatures. Sensitivity analysis shows that climatic factors have the highest influence on the thermal enrichment followed by the catchment characteristics and the key design variables of the stormwater pond and the cooling trench. The general method presented here is easily transferable to other regions of the world (but not necessarily the exact equations developed here); also through sensitivity and parametric analysis, we gained insight on the key factors and their relative importance in modelling thermal enrichment of urban stromwater runoff.     

流域尺度土地利用调蓄视角的雨洪管理探析

发达国家雨洪管理焦点历经管网设计、不透水面阈值控制、低影响开发及土地利用管理等过程,呈现“多尺度多视角衔接”趋势。本文聚焦太湖流域土地利用调蓄功能变化机制及管理应用,揭示了1985-2015年来建设占用耕地是调蓄功能降低的主要原因;发现基于小流域的调蓄功能变化与建设用地强度整体低关联,但局部高相关,高相关的地区位于大城市或某些乡镇周边的建设增长热区,而这些热区的建设用地与调蓄空间规模较大且接触机会更多,是开发之前调蓄空间保护、开发控制以及开发之后综合管理等3个土地利用调蓄目标因子协调不当的结果;最后提出流域尺度土地利用调蓄视角的雨洪管理“345”模式,即以3个目标因子和5类控制要素为基础,实施土地利用调蓄创建、防御、拓展与保护等4类差别化战略模式,从更大尺度认识老城区和新区的雨洪关联,拓展海绵城市建设的本土认知和视野。     

Hydrologic response of engineered media in living roofs and bioretention to large rainfalls: experiments and modeling

The hydrologic response of engineered media plays an important role in determining a stormwater control measure's ability to reduce runoff volume, flow rate, timing, and pollutant loads. Five engineered media, typical of living roof and bioretention stormwater control measures, were investigated in laboratory column experiments for their hydrologic responses to steady, large inflow rates. The inflow, medium water content response, and outflow were all measured. The water flow mechanism (uniform flow vs. preferential flow) was investigated by analyzing medium water content response in terms of timing, magnitude, and sequence with depth. Modeling the hydrologic process was conducted in the HYDRUS‐1D software, applying the Richards equation for uniform flow modeling, and a mobile–immobile model for preferential flow modeling. Uniform flow existed in most cases, including all initially dry living roof media with bimodal pore size distributions and one bioretention medium with unimodal pore size distribution. The Richards equation can predict the outflow hydrograph reasonably well for uniform flow conditions when medium hydraulic properties are adequately represented by appropriate functions. Preferential flow was found in two media with bimodal pore size distributions. The occurrence of preferential flow is more likely due to the interaction between the bimodal pore structure and the initial water content rather than the large inflow rate.     

Assessing the effects of catchment‐scale urban green infrastructure retrofits on hydrograph characteristics

Run‐off from impervious surfaces has pervasive and serious consequences for urban streams, but the detrimental effects of urban stormwater can be lessened by disconnecting impervious surfaces and redirecting run‐off to decentralized green infrastructure. This study used a before–after‐control‐impact design, in which streets served as subcatchments, to quantify hydrologic effectiveness of street‐scale investments in green infrastructure, such as street‐connected bioretention cells, rain gardens and rain barrels. On the two residential treatment streets, voluntary participation resulted in 32.2% and 13.5% of parcels having green infrastructure installed over a 2‐year period. Storm sewer discharge was measured before and after green infrastructure implementation, and peak discharge, total run‐off volume and hydrograph lags were analysed. On the street with smaller lots and lower participation, green infrastructure installation succeeded in reducing peak discharge by up to 33% and total storm run‐off by up to 40%. On the street with larger lots and higher participation, there was no significant reduction in peak or total stormflows, but on this street, contemporaneous street repairs may have offset improvements. On the street with smaller lots, lag times increased following the first phase of green infrastructure construction, in which streetside bioretention cells were built with underdrains. In the second phase, lag times did not change further, because bioretention cells were built without underdrains and water was removed from the system, rather than just delayed. We conclude that voluntary green infrastructure retrofits that include treatment of street run‐off can be effective for substantially reducing stormwater but that small differences in design and construction can be important for determining the level of the benefit. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of distributed BMPs in an urban watershed—High resolution modeling for stormwater management

The urban environment modifies the hydrologic cycle resulting in increased runoff rates, volumes, and peak flows. Green infrastructure, which uses best management practices (BMPs), is a natural system approach used to mitigate the impacts of urbanization onto stormwater runoff. Patterns of stormwater runoff from urban environments are complex, and it is unclear how efficiently green infrastructure will improve the urban water cycle. These challenges arise from issues of scale, the merits of BMPs depend on changes to small‐scale hydrologic processes aggregated up from the neighborhood to the urban watershed. Here, we use a hyper‐resolution (1 m), physically based hydrologic model of the urban hydrologic cycle with explicit inclusion of the built environment. This model represents the changes to hydrology at the BMP scale (~1 m) and represents each individual BMP explicitly to represent response over the urban watershed. Our study varies both the percentage of BMP emplacement and their spatial location for storm events of increasing intensity in an urban watershed. We develop a metric of effectiveness that indicates a nonlinear relationship that is seen between percent BMP emplacement and storm intensity. Results indicate that BMP effectiveness varies with spatial location and that type and emplacement within the urban watershed may be more important than overall percent.     

南昌市城区暴雨积水的数值模拟

论述了南昌市城市暴雨积水仿真系统的数学原理和开发成果,并应用实况降水对该系统的模拟精度进行测试。结果表明:大多数(62.6%)模拟计算结果的绝对误差在10 cm以内,只有极少数(2.4%)实际积水与模拟结果的误差超过30 cm。暴雨积水等级试验结果表明,中度以上暴雨积水地段的预报准确率达98%,轻度积水和无积水地段的预报准确率达92%。总体来看,暴雨积水趋势(等级)预报基本准确,定量(积水深度)预报有误差,平均相对误差为6%,模型的预测结果与实况基本相符。通过人工给定不同强度的雨量来模拟南昌市两个重点积水地段的积水过程,得到结论:当降水强度达到20 mm/h时,开始产生积水,降水强度超过30 mm/h时将产生严重积水;两个积水点因排水条件不一样,退水时间差异较大。排水条件差的地段,中—大雨需要15 h退完,暴雨需要24 h以上才能退完;在不同降水强度和排水条件下,最大积水深度出现的时间有明显区别;在暴雨情况下,绝大部分(76%)积水点的最大积水深度出现在2~3 h内。此外,讨论了模拟误差产生的原因。     

Thermal influence of urban groundwater recharge from stormwater infiltration basins

Groundwater warming below cities has become a major environmental issue; but the effect of distinct local anthropogenic sources of heat on urban groundwater temperature distributions is still poorly documented. Our study addressed the local effect of stormwater infiltration on the thermal regime of urban groundwater by examining differences in water temperature beneath stormwater infiltration basins (SIB) and reference sites fed exclusively by direct infiltration of rainwater at the land surface. Stormwater infiltration dramatically increased the thermal amplitude of groundwater at event and season scales. Temperature variation at the scale of rainfall events reached 3 °C and was controlled by the interaction between runoff amount and difference in temperature between stormwater and groundwater. The annual amplitude of groundwater temperature was on average nine times higher below SIB (range: 0·9–8·6 °C) than at reference sites (range: 0–1·2 °C) and increased with catchment area of SIB. Elevated summer temperature of infiltrating stormwater (up to 21 °C) decreased oxygen solubility and stimulated microbial respiration in the soil and vadose zone, thereby lowering dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in groundwater. The net effect of infiltration on average groundwater temperature depended upon the seasonal distribution of rainfall: groundwater below large SIB warmed up (+0·4 °C) when rainfall occurred predominantly during warm seasons. The thermal effect of stormwater infiltration strongly attenuated with increasing depth below the groundwater table indicating advective heat transport was restricted to the uppermost layers of groundwater. Moreover, excessive groundwater temperature variation at event and season scales can be attenuated by reducing the size of catchment areas drained by SIB and by promoting source control drainage systems. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

城市雨洪模拟技术研究进展

从对水文过程描述的角度对城市雨洪模拟技术进行了回顾,认为管网汇流阶段算法较为成熟,而产流和坡面汇流阶段还有待深入研究.从模型构建思想的角度回顾其发展历程,阐明了经验性模型和分布式概念性模型的局限性以及分布式物理模型的良好发展前景.通过总结国内外几个具代表性城市雨洪模型的特点,从特定模型的角度进一步分析城市雨洪模型的现状,并指出中国与国外模型研究的差距.对与城市雨洪模拟精度密切相关的基础数据收集与管理技术进行了讨论,并提出了城市雨洪模拟技术的发展方向.