The Effect of Geological Heterogeneity and Groundwater Table Depth on the Hydraulic Performance of Stormwater Infiltration Facilities

Andrea D’Aniello (), Luigi Cimorelli, Luca Cozzolino and Domenico Pianese
Additional contact information
Andrea D’Aniello: University of Naples Federico II
Luigi Cimorelli: University of Naples Federico II
Luca Cozzolino: Parthenope University of Naples
Domenico Pianese: University of Naples Federico II

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2019, vol. 33, issue 3, No 15, 1147-1166

Abstract: Abstract Urbanization has led to a substantial change in the hydrological cycle of urban catchments. Increased runoff and urban flooding, decreased direct subsurface infiltration and groundwater recharge, deterioration of water quality are among the major effects of this alteration. To alleviate these effects, Low Impact Development (LID) practices have been frequently adopted for stormwater management. Among LID infrastructures, infiltration facilities are particularly challenging to design and model due to the considerable amount of uncertainties related to the hydrogeological configuration of installation sites. To date, analysis on how soil heterogeneity, groundwater table depth, and thickness of the unsaturated zone affect the hydraulic performance of infiltration facilities are lacking. To address this knowledge gap, a series of numerical experiments under transient variably water saturated conditions were performed for a hypothetical infiltration facility. Numerical simulations showed that i) infiltration rates increase considerably as the initial depth of the groundwater table increases, ii) the contribution of the bottom of the facility to the infiltration of water is generally higher than the sides, iii) the presence of a less conducting soil layer at a short depth from the bottom of the facility reduces infiltration rates dramatically, iv) the complete clogging of the bottom of the facility has a dramatic impact on the hydraulic performance, v) the stochastic heterogeneity of the soil controls the overall stormwater infiltration process through the facility, and the hydraulic performance may largely deviate from the case when heterogeneity is absent.

Keywords: Stormwater infiltration facilities; Geological heterogeneity; Groundwater table depth; Unsaturated zone; Numerical modelling; Low impact development (LID) practices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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/s11269-018-2172-5 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:33:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s11269-018-2172-5

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

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-018-2172-5

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 ().