Hydrodynamic Characterization of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) by Using Beerkan Infiltration Experiments

Sofia Bouarafa,Gislain Lipeme-Kouyi,Rafael Angulo-Jaramillo,Laurent Lassabatere

doi:10.3390/w11040660

Abstract

Stormwater management techniques in urban areas, such as sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS), are designed to manage rainwater through an infiltration process. In order to determine the infiltration capacities of different SuDS and to identify their unsaturated hydraulic properties, measurements with the Beerkan method (i.e., single ring infiltration tests) were carried out on four types of common infiltration structures in an urban zone of Lyon (France): A drainage ditch with an underlying storage structure, a parking lot with a waterproof pavement that transfers runoff water toward the ditch, a vegetated hollow core slab, and an embankment of a grass-covered garden that was used as a reference for rainwater infiltration capacity. The novelty of this study lies in the use of three Beerkan estimation of soil transfer parameters (BEST) algorithms: BEST-slope, BEST-intercept, and BEST-steady to analyze infiltration data. The BEST methods are based on the analysis of the infiltration rate from transient to steady-state flow. They allow the determination of both shape and scale parameters of the soil water retention curve h(θ) and the hydraulic conductivity curve K(θ). The three BEST methods are efficient and simple for hydraulic characterization of SuDS. The study of the hydrodynamic behavior of the four structures revealed the infiltration inefficiency of some of them. Their average infiltration rates are considerably lower than the reference infiltration rain garden. The results confirmed the impact of some physical conditions, such as pore structure modification due to invasive vegetation colonization and the presence of soil organic matter, on soil hydrodynamic behavior degradation.

Highlights

The guidelines for urban stormwater management have undergone several changes over the course of time
The studied structures include: (i) A drainage ditch with an underlying storage structure, (ii) a parking lot with a waterproof pavement that transfers runoff water toward a ditch, (iii) a vegetated hollow core slab, and (iv) an embankment of a grass-covered garden that was used as a reference for rainwater infiltration capacity
The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the convenience of using the Beerkan estimation of soil transfer parameters (BEST) methods to determine the characteristic hydrodynamic parameters of sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) in order to monitor their efficiency

Summary

Introduction

The guidelines for urban stormwater management have undergone several changes over the course of time They were based first on hydraulic and hygienist premises, which consist of quick evacuation of stormwater toward natural aquatic environments through separate or combined sewer systems. These conventional drainage systems only consider water quantity management issues, and they are economically and ecologically costly. Diverse activities pursued in cities produce a large variety of pollutants that are disposed in air and on surfaces They can be organic, such as hydrocarbons, oils, and grease; inorganic, such as metals and dissolved nutrients; or pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses [1,2,3]. All of these contaminants end up in the receiving water bodies [4,5,6]

Objectives

Methods

Results