Real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cells
Extreme weather and the proliferation of impervious areas in urban watersheds increases the frequency of flood events and deepens water quality concerns. Bioretention is a type of green infrastructure practice developed to mitigate these impacts by reducing peak flows, runoff volume, and nutrient lo...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IWA Publishing
2019-08-01
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| Series: | Blue-Green Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2019.924 |
| _version_ | 1819282840702943232 |
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| author | P. P. Persaud A. A. Akin B. Kerkez D. T. McCarthy J. M. Hathaway |
| author_facet | P. P. Persaud A. A. Akin B. Kerkez D. T. McCarthy J. M. Hathaway |
| author_sort | P. P. Persaud |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Extreme weather and the proliferation of impervious areas in urban watersheds increases the frequency of flood events and deepens water quality concerns. Bioretention is a type of green infrastructure practice developed to mitigate these impacts by reducing peak flows, runoff volume, and nutrient loads in stormwater. However, studies have shown inconsistency in the ability of bioretention to manage some pollutants, particularly some forms of nitrogen. Innovative sensor and control technologies are being tested to actively manage urban stormwater, primarily in open water stormwater systems such as wet ponds. Through these cyber-physical controls, it may be possible to optimize storage time and/or soil moisture dynamics within bioretention cells to create more favorable conditions for water quality improvements. A column study testing the influence of active control on bioretention system performance was conducted over a 9-week period. Active control columns were regulated based on either maintaining a specific water level or soil moisture content and were compared to free draining (FD) and internal water storage standards. Actively controlled bioretention columns performed similarly, with the soil moisture-based control showing the best performance with over 86% removal of metals and total suspended solids (TSS) while also exhibiting the highest ammonium removal (43%) and second highest nitrate removal (74%). While all column types showed mostly similar TSS and metal removal trends (median 94 and 98%, respectively), traditionally FD and internal water storage configurations promoted aerobic and anaerobic processes, respectively, which suggests that actively controlled systems have greater potential for targeting both processes. The results suggest that active controls can improve upon standard bioretention designs, but further optimization is required to balance the water quality benefits gained by retention time against storage needs for impending storms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-24T01:21:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8ac2a773164c4123ab27e2eb28a22cb2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2617-4782 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-24T01:21:59Z |
| publishDate | 2019-08-01 |
| publisher | IWA Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Blue-Green Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-8ac2a773164c4123ab27e2eb28a22cb22022-12-21T17:22:37ZengIWA PublishingBlue-Green Systems2617-47822019-08-0111557110.2166/bgs.2019.924924Real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cellsP. P. Persaud0A. A. Akin1B. Kerkez2D. T. McCarthy3J. M. Hathaway4 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, 325 John D. Tickle Building, 851 Neyland Dr., Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, 325 John D. Tickle Building, 851 Neyland Dr., Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Environmental and Public Health Microbiology Lab (EPHM Lab), Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, 325 John D. Tickle Building, 851 Neyland Dr., Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA Extreme weather and the proliferation of impervious areas in urban watersheds increases the frequency of flood events and deepens water quality concerns. Bioretention is a type of green infrastructure practice developed to mitigate these impacts by reducing peak flows, runoff volume, and nutrient loads in stormwater. However, studies have shown inconsistency in the ability of bioretention to manage some pollutants, particularly some forms of nitrogen. Innovative sensor and control technologies are being tested to actively manage urban stormwater, primarily in open water stormwater systems such as wet ponds. Through these cyber-physical controls, it may be possible to optimize storage time and/or soil moisture dynamics within bioretention cells to create more favorable conditions for water quality improvements. A column study testing the influence of active control on bioretention system performance was conducted over a 9-week period. Active control columns were regulated based on either maintaining a specific water level or soil moisture content and were compared to free draining (FD) and internal water storage standards. Actively controlled bioretention columns performed similarly, with the soil moisture-based control showing the best performance with over 86% removal of metals and total suspended solids (TSS) while also exhibiting the highest ammonium removal (43%) and second highest nitrate removal (74%). While all column types showed mostly similar TSS and metal removal trends (median 94 and 98%, respectively), traditionally FD and internal water storage configurations promoted aerobic and anaerobic processes, respectively, which suggests that actively controlled systems have greater potential for targeting both processes. The results suggest that active controls can improve upon standard bioretention designs, but further optimization is required to balance the water quality benefits gained by retention time against storage needs for impending storms.http://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2019.924biofilterbioretentionreal time controlstormwaterwater quality |
| spellingShingle | P. P. Persaud A. A. Akin B. Kerkez D. T. McCarthy J. M. Hathaway Real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cells Blue-Green Systems biofilter bioretention real time control stormwater water quality |
| title | Real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cells |
| title_full | Real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cells |
| title_fullStr | Real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cells |
| title_full_unstemmed | Real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cells |
| title_short | Real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cells |
| title_sort | real time control schemes for improving water quality from bioretention cells |
| topic | biofilter bioretention real time control stormwater water quality |
| url | http://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2019.924 |
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