Modeling the Effectiveness of Rain Barrels, Cisterns, and Downspout Disconnections for Reducing Combined Sewer Overflows in a City-Scale Watershed

Seyed Hamed Ghodsi, Zhenduo Zhu (), Hazem Gheith, Alan J. Rabideau, María Nariné Torres and Kevin Meindl
Additional contact information
Seyed Hamed Ghodsi: University at Buffalo
Zhenduo Zhu: University at Buffalo
Hazem Gheith: Arcadis
Alan J. Rabideau: University at Buffalo
María Nariné Torres: University at Buffalo
Kevin Meindl: Buffalo Sewer Authority

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2021, vol. 35, issue 9, No 12, 2895-2908

Abstract: Abstract Green Infrastructure / Low Impact Development (GI/LID) is an increasingly popular strategy to manage urban stormwater for individual properties, but the aggregate effect on runoff reduction at the city scale has not been thoroughly investigated. This study examined the potential combined effects of rain barrels, cisterns, and downspout disconnections on combined sewer overflows (CSOs) for a medium-sized urban center. To support a city-wide analysis, a novel simulation strategy was implemented using the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). In this new approach, a modeling at the source technique for subcatchment delineation was combined with a set of R-language utilities to automatically configure GI/LID management scenarios. The reconfigured SWMM model was used to examine 99 distinct management scenarios based on different sizes, numbers, and locations of the targeted GI/LID features for the city of Buffalo, New York. For a typical hydrologic year, the deployment of large residential rain barrels (1000-gallon) resulted in up to a 12% reduction in predicted CSO volume, while the inclusion of large commercial-roof cisterns (5000-gallon) contributed up to an additional 12% reduction. Large variations in the predicted CSO reductions were observed across the various management scenarios, and the simulation tools were able to identify locations where the GI/LID features were most effective. In general, the modeling at the source approach and the R-language tools substantially enhanced the utility of SWMM for evaluating the effectiveness of GI/LID deployment as a CSO management strategy at the city scale, and the methodology can readily be adapted to cities with similar CSO issues.

Keywords: Combined sewer overflow; GI/LID; Rain barrel; Cistern; Downspout disconnection; City-scale watershed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-021-02875-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:35:y:2021:i:9:d:10.1007_s11269-021-02875-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-021-02875-7

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().