Monitoring the effects of urban and forested land uses on runoff quality: Implications for improved stormwater management

Abstract

Urban stormwater is a substantial source of non-point source pollution. Despite considerable monitoring efforts, little is known about stormwater quality in certain geographic regions. These spatial gaps induce uncertainty when extrapolating data and reduce model calibration capabilities, thereby limiting pollutant load reduction strategies. In this study, stormwater quality was monitored from 15 watersheds to characterize pollutant event mean concentrations (EMCs) and loads as a function of urban and forested (i.e., surrogates for pre-development) land use and land covers (LULCs) and rainfall patterns from a geographic region where these data are sparse. Residential and heavy industrial, heavy industrial, and industrial and commercial LULCs, respectively, were the primary generators of nutrients, total suspended solids (TSS), and heavy metals. Increased rainfall intensities (average and peak) significantly increased the EMCs of all particulate bound pollutants. Pollutant loads increased with rainfall depth and, in general, did not follow the same LULC trends as EMCs, suggesting loads were influenced substantially by watershed hydrologic responses. Mean annual urban loads of total phosphorus, total nitrogen, TSS, and zinc (Zn) ranged from 0.4 (low density residential [LDR]) to 1.5 (heavy industrial), 3.2 (single family residential [SFR]) to 11.5 (heavy industrial), 122.6 (SFR) to 1219.9 (heavy industrial), and 0.1 (LDR) to 0.7 (commercial) kg/ha/yr, respectively. Annual urban loads of TSS were 3.5 to 34 and − 1.5 to 6.8-fold greater than annual loads from forested and agricultural watersheds, respectively. Mean annual loads of heavy metals from urban LULCs were substantially greater than loads produced by forested and agricultural watersheds (e.g., 8.6 to 92 and 6.8 to 73-fold greater, respectively, for Zn), while loads of nutrients were generally similar between urban and agricultural watersheds. Findings herein suggest non-point source pollution will continue to threaten surface water quality as land is developed; results can help guide the development of cost-efficient stormwater management strategies.