Field simulation of urban surfaces runoff and estimation of runoff with experimental curve numbers

ABSTRACT

In this study, runoff responses of typical urban surfaces were investigated by scale models under artificial rainfall simulation, and the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) model was used to assess the impacts of land use changes and green infrastructures implementation on surface runoff of Beijing urban areas. The results showed that: Runoff coefficient of the impervious surface was about 2.1 times than that of the grassland. Time to runoff of the grassland was about 22.0 times that of the impervious surface. The concaved grassland, compared with the impervious surface, can significantly delay by 6.2 minutes the time to runoff, while the porous pavement significantly reduces 28.1% of the runoff coefficient. The runoff coefficient of Beijing urban areas increased from 0.68 in 2002 to 0.72 in 2012, due to the substantially increased impervious surfaces. The runoff coefficient decreased by 2.7%, 15.3% and 22.2% respectively under three green infrastructure scenarios.

KEYWORDS:

• Curve number
• green infrastructure
• land use changes
• runoff responses
• scale model
• urban surfaces

Acknowledgements

We are thankful for the financial support of the CAS ‘Light of West China’ Program (29Y729841), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41601040), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M602899). Prof. Wei Wei of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is gratefully acknowledged for his support in rainfall simulation. Dr. Lei Yao is also acknowledged for his help with data collection. We greatly appreciate suggestions from two anonymous referees for the improvement of our paper. Thanks also to the editorial staff.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2016M602899]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [41601040]; CAS ‘Light of West China’ Program [29Y729841].