Impact of green infrastructure on the mitigation of road-deposited sediment induced stormwater pollution

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

As a vital stormwater pollution source, the pollutants associated with road-deposited sediment (RDS) have become a growing concern in urban water management. Green infrastructure has exhibited great potential in stormwater pollution mitigation, but is not comprehensively understood yet due to the influences of complex RDS-associated pollutant migration processes (i.e., build-up, wash-off, and discharge). In this study, a city-scale hydraulic and water quality model was used to analyze the migration and removal processes of four RDS-associated pollutants (total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP)) under different hydrological patterns, land-cover types, and green infrastructure installation locations. Results show that the antecedent dry-weather period was the main factor influencing RDS build-up, while the precipitation pattern strongly impacted RDS wash-off, discharge, and removal. The downstream-installed green infrastructures reduced the RDS-induced stormwater pollution by up to 68% and relieved the pollution-mitigation pressure of the studied drainage networks by almost 50%. The TSS and COD removal rates were higher (62.22–68.09%) near green space, while those of TN and TP were higher around buildings and roads (40.00–62.50%). Sensitivity analysis indicated that seven parameters regarding the surface layer characteristics and soil texture class strongly impacted the pollution-mitigation performance among the 31 technical parameters of green infrastructure. The results of this study would assist urban water management by optimizing green infrastructure for stormwater pollution mitigation.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number145294
JournalScience of the total environment
Volume770
Publication statusPublished - 20 May 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85099804548

Keywords

Keywords

  • Land-cover type, Road-deposited sediment, Green infrastructure, Stormwater quality, Modeling