Effect of rainfall characteristics on the sewer sediment, hydrograph, and pollutant discharge of combined sewer overflow

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Significant management needs raised in urban sewer system to facilitate urban resilience to rainstorm. The work investigated the effects of temporal evolution of rainfall on hydrograph and pollutant discharge of CSO over an intensive observation period of 12 months, with special attention to differences in temporal scale for supporting management decision making. The characteristics of rainfall in different temporal scales helped overflow-risk identification and assessment. Prolonged dry seasons over 112 days in the CSO monitored year 2018 increased the sediment buildup in the pipes. The built sediment was mostly flushed out to overflow (and the treatment facility) by initial rainfall during 47 h. Following CSO hydraulics and pollutant discharge follows initial peak patterns which responded to rainfall patterns. Results of Redundancy analysis and network analysis showed that the combined effects of rainfall, urbanization, and sediments as “CSO troika” are the driving forces for CSO pollutants in the long-term. The improved characterization of CSO events and the associated pollutants has refined our understanding of how overflow hydrograph and pollutant discharge responds to rainfall temporally, which methodology supported decision making in the combining source/process control with terminal management for facilizing urban resilience.

Original languageEnglish
Article number114268
JournalJournal of Environmental Management
Volume303
Number of pages8
ISSN0301-4797
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The work was funded by Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment of China (2017ZX0710202-001), China Europe Water Platform (CEWP) Lot 3 Water and Urbanization (PI/2017/382?116). All the authors would like to acknowledge Professor Peter Engelund Holm from University of Copenhagen, for pre-peer reviewed the manuscript.

Funding Information:
The work was funded by Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment of China ( 2017ZX0710202-001 ), China Europe Water Platform (CEWP) Lot 3 Water and Urbanization ( PI/2017/382–116 ). All the authors would like to acknowledge Professor Peter Engelund Holm from University of Copenhagen, for pre-peer reviewed the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd

    Research areas

  • Combined sewer overflow, Hydrograph, Pollutant discharge, Rainfall, Sewer sediment

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