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DETAILED SOIL SURVEYS AND DISTRIBUTED BMPS FOR STORMWATER QUANTITY CONTROL. MAKING THE CONNECTION
Citation:
Shuster*, W D., R. Gehring, AND J. Gerken. DETAILED SOIL SURVEYS AND DISTRIBUTED BMPS FOR STORMWATER QUANTITY CONTROL. MAKING THE CONNECTION. Presented at ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meetings, Seattle, WA, October 31 - November 04, 2004.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public
Description:
Best management practices (BMPs) that operate on the basis of infiltration can be used at the parcel-level to reduce the volume of stormwater runoff that would otherwise erode landscapes and disrupt stream ecosystems. Contemporary urban and ex-urban landscapes have a substantially altered soil distribution due to excavation and transportation of soil materials, and extensive use of fill material. In part or combined, these alterations and disturbances create soils with highly variable composition and depth distribution, and can therefore impact infiltration rate and capacity. As a part of a larger experiment addressing the potential benefits of spatially-distributed, parcel-level BMPs on the mitigation of the deleterious impacts of stormwater flows, we used a level-one soil survey to study the distribution of soils along landscapes that comprise a 150 hectare suburban watershed. Based on our preliminary experiences on this relatively small southwestern OH watershed, we find that detailed soil surveys can provide critical data to better predict performance and guide the installation of storm water BMPs. We present a basic description of our approach for sampling design, sampling practice and working with stakeholders in this suburban watershed, and applications of data including rainfall-runoff model calibration; the use of survey data in the selection of optimal BMPs for different soil regions in the watershed prediction; and improved prediction of BMP performance.