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A green infrastructure experimental site for developing and evaluating models
Citation:
Mohamoud, Y. AND J. Flaishans. A green infrastructure experimental site for developing and evaluating models. Presented at American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)- World Environmental & Water Resources Congress 2013 Meeting, Cincinnati, OH, May 19 - 23, 2013.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)- World Environmental & Water Resources Congress 2013 Meeting in Cincinnati, OH, May 19 - 23, 2013.
Description:
The Ecosystems Research Division (ERD) of the U.S. EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) in Athens, GA has a 14-acre urban watershed which has become an experimental research site for green infrastructure studies. About half of the watershed is covered by pervious land consisting of forest and turf areas. Some of the pervious land is covered by grassy swales, permeable pavement, and a bio-retention basin- all constructed with best management practices (BMPs). Impervious land areas consist of roofs, parking lots, roads, and sidewalks with standard methods. The watershed has a complete weather station, including a class A evaporation pan, and is equipped with flow measurement instruments, water level recorders, and water quality monitoring sensors. Other onsite experimental devices include a rainfall simulator and weighing lysimeters for microcosm studies. This study compares the suitability of the Stormwater Management (SWMM) model, Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF), and the Hydrological Simulation Modeling System (HEC-HMS) for modeling bio-filtration and bio-retention basins. The project objective of model comparison is to evaluate the accuracy with which each model represents dominant hydrological processes that are important to bio-infiltration and bio-retention basins.
