Research Areas > Nutrients > Identification of Nutrient Sources > Estimating Terrestrial Sources
Project Group: Estimating Terrestrial Sources of Nutrients and Contaminants
SCCWRP Research
Runoff from natural and developed land surfaces (e.g., rooftops, streets, soil) can collect pollutants such as nutrients, bacteria, and heavy metals, and then deliver this polluted water into rivers, lakes, and oceans. Urban runoff may have a range of potential impacts on the receiving aquatic environment and the organisms that live there. The factors that affect stormwater, dry-weather runoff, and the associated impacts on receiving water quality are relatively understudied. In particular, the mechanisms and processes that influence temporal and spatial patterns of nutrient loading via stormwater are not well understood.
SCCWRP studies on terrestrial nutrient loads aim to:
• Quantify the event mean concentrations or EMCs (the nutrient concentrations in stormwater during a single rain event) under a variety of rainfall and antecedent dry conditions.
• Determine relative dry season nutrient loading from terrestrial sources including natural stream flow, treated wastewater discharge, and dry-weather urban runoff.
• Characterize the nutrient flux and mass loading associated with stormwater runoff from several representative land-uses (e.g., high density residential, agricultural, recreational).
• Compare stormwater EMCs, fluxes, and mass loading from urban (developed) and nonurban (undeveloped) watersheds; and investigate within-storm and within-season factors that affect nutrient concentration and flux.
The stream on the left, surrounded by undeveloped land, may have very different water quality than the stream shown on the right, which assimilates runoff from the adjacent developed agricultural area.
Projects in this group include:
This page was last updated on: 10/27/2010