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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #349902
Research Project: Design and Implementation of Monitoring and Modeling Methods to Evaluate Microbial Quality of Surface Water Sources Used for Irrigation

Location: Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory

Title: Assessment of a low impact development (LID) practice using the coupled SWMM and HYDRUS models

Author
item BAEK, SANGSOO - University Of Ulsan College Of Medicine
item Pachepsky, Yakov
item CHUN, JONG AHN - Apec Climate Center (APCC)
item YOON, KWANG-SIK - Chonnam National University
item PARK, YONGEUN - University Of Ulsan College Of Medicine
item CHO, KYUNGHWA - University Of Ulsan College Of Medicine

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Modeling and Software
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/17/2020
Publication Date: 4/1/2020
Citation: Baek, S., Pachepsky, Y.A., Chun, J., Yoon, K., Park, Y., Cho, K. 2020. Assessment of a low impact development (LID) practice using the coupled SWMM and HYDRUS models. Journal of Environmental Modeling and Software. 261:109920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109920.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109920

Interpretive Summary: Low Impact Development (LID) practices have the potential to provide better hydrologic functioning of urban areas as well as improve the environmental, economic, social and cultural conditions. We developed the new LID modeling tool based on coupling the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) and HYDRUS-1D model to improve predictions of the LID efficiency and obtain detailed hydrologic change by the LID operation. In this study, the developed model was evaluated by simulating the observed soil water time series for the green roof. We analyzed green roof performance in the urban catchment as affected by size and soil type. The proposed model (SWMM-H) was capable to provide more accurate simulations compared with the SWMM model. Simulations showed that sandy loam provided higher reduction of the total runoff and peak flow as compared with sand. The SWMM-H model can be applied to other LID such as rain gardens and bioretention in addition to the green roof. It is concluded that SWMM-H can be a useful tool for urban and environmental planners to develop effective strategies for better urban water management.

Technical Abstract: Extensive coverage of land surface with pavements and buildings radically changes water flow and storage, and can have negative consequences for environmental quality and economy in urban areas. Low impact development practices have been introduced to mitigate the loss of vegetated areas to impermeable structures. So called green roofs where soil and vegetation are present is one of such practices. The forecast of the green roof efficiency is done with the SWMM model that computes water flow with substantial errors. We replaced the obsolete water flow modules in SWMM with the modern soil water flow module HYDRUS, and tested the resultant model SWMM-HYDRUS with two green roof datasets. The new model appeared to be significantly more accurate. Its use demonstrated that the original SWMM model overestimated the green roof efficiency. Because of higher accuracy, the new model SWMM-HYDRUS is expected to be used in urban planning and green roof design and evaluation.