Abstract
Integrated Catchment Modelling aims to simulate jointly urban drainage systems, wastewater treatment plant and rivers. The effect of rainfall input uncertainties in the modelling of individual urban drainage systems has been discussed in several studies already. However, this influence changes when simultaneously simulating several urban drainage subsystems and their impact on receiving water quality. This study investigates the effect of the characteristics of rainfall inputs on a large-scale integrated catchment simulator for dissolved oxygen predictions in the River Dommel (The Netherlands). Rainfall products were generated with varying time-aggregation (10, 30 and 60 min) deriving from different sources of data with increasing spatial information: (1) Homogeneous rainfall from a single rain gauge; (2) block kriging from 13 rain gauges; (3) averaged C-Band radar estimation and (4) kriging with external drift combining radar and rain gauge data with change of spatial support. The influence of the different rainfall inputs was observed at combined sewer overflows (CSO) and dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics in the river. Comparison of the simulations with river monitoring data showed a low sensitivity to temporal aggregation of rainfall inputs and a relevant impact of the spatial scale with a link to the storm characteristics to CSO and DO concentration in the receiving water.
Highlights
Integrated Catchment Modelling (ICM) is a key tool in the assessment of environmental impacts of urban water drainage on river ecosystems [1]
The influence of the different rainfall inputs was observed at combined sewer overflows (CSO) and dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics in the river
The effect of rainfall input source in the urban drainage dynamics is illustrated by the comparison of the four most relevant internal variables: (1) Maximum estimated rainfall intensity in the catchment; (2) accumulated rainfall depth; (3) maximum discharge at the CSO
Summary
Integrated Catchment Modelling (ICM) is a key tool in the assessment of environmental impacts of urban water drainage on river ecosystems [1]. ICM aims to represent the link between the relevant sub-systems affecting receiving water quality dynamics. This is often done by jointly simulating urban drainage systems, Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP), rural hydrology and river processes [2,3]. The simulation of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in urbanised rivers is of interest to guide in the decision-making process of environmental management studies. Those simulators allow estimating the effect of corrective measures prior to their adoption. The complexity of water quality dynamics and the systematic deficit of observed data result in predictions from such modelling studies presenting a significant degree of uncertainty [4,5]
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