Watershed-scale impacts of stormwater green infrastructure on hydrology, nutrient fluxes, and combined sewer overflows in the mid-Atlantic region

AbstractStormwater green infrastructure (SGI), including rain gardens, detention ponds, bioswales, and green roofs, is being implemented in cities across the globe to reduce flooding, combined sewer overflows, and pollutant transport to streams and rivers. Despite the increasing use of urban SGI, few studies have quantified the cumulative effects of multiple SGI projects on hydrology and water quality at the watershed scale. To assess the effects of SGI, Washington, DC, Montgomery County, MD, and Baltimore County, MD, were selected based on the availability of data on SGI, water quality, and stream flow. The cumulative impact of SGI was evaluated over space and time by comparing watersheds with and without SGI, and by assessing how long-term changes in SGI impact hydrologic and water quality metrics over time. Most Mid-Atlantic municipalities have a goal of achieving 10–20% of the landscape drain runoff through SGI by 2030. Of these areas, Washington, DC currently has the greatest amount of SGI (12.7% of the landscape drained through SGI), while Baltimore County has the lowest (7.9%). When controlling for watersheds size and percent impervious surface cover, watersheds with greater amounts of SGI have less flashy hydrology, with 44% lower peak runoff, 26% less frequent runoff events, and 26% less variable runoff. Watersheds with more SGI also show 44% less NO3− and 48% less total nitrogen exports compared to watersheds with minimal SGI. There was no significant reduction in phosphorus exports or combined sewer overflows in watersheds with greater SGI. When comparing individual watersheds over time, increases in SGI corresponded to non-significant reductions in hydrologic flashiness compared to watersheds with no change in SGI. While the implementation of SGI is somewhat in its infancy in some regions, cities are beginning to have a scale of SGI where there are statistically significant differences in hydrologic patterns and water quality

Urban Evolution: The Role of Water

The structure, function, and services of urban ecosystems evolve over time scales from seconds to centuries as Earth’s population grows, infrastructure ages, and sociopolitical values alter them. In order to systematically study changes over time, the concept of “urban evolution” was proposed. It allows urban planning, management, and restoration to move beyond reactive management to predictive management based on past observations of consistent patterns. Here, we define and review a glossary of core concepts for studying urban evolution, which includes the mechanisms of urban selective pressure and urban adaptation. Urban selective pressure is an environmental or societal driver contributing to urban adaptation. Urban adaptation is thesequential process by which an urban structure, function, or services becomes more fitted to its changing environment or human choices. The role of water is vital to driving urban evolution as demonstrated by historical changes in drainage, sewage flows, hydrologic pulses, and long-term chemistry. In the current paper, we show how hydrologic traits evolve across successive generations of urban ecosystems via shifts in selective pressures and adaptations over time. We explore multiple empirical examples including evolving: (1) urban drainage from stream burial to stormwater management; (2) sewage flows and water quality in response to wastewater treatment; (3) amplification of hydrologic pulses due to the interaction between urbanization and climate variability; and (4) salinization and alkalinization of fresh water due to human inputs and accelerated weathering. Finally, we propose a new conceptual model for the evolution of urban waters from the Industrial Revolution to the present day based on empirical trends and historical information. Ultimately, we propose that water itself is a critical driver of urban evolution that forces urban adaptation, which transforms the structure, function, and services of urban landscapes, waterways, and civilizations over time

Urban Stream Burial Increases Watershed-Scale Nitrate Export

Nitrogen (N) uptake in streams is an important ecosystem service that reduces nutrient loading to downstream ecosystems. Here we synthesize studies that investigated the effects of urban stream burial on N-uptake in two metropolitan areas and use simulation modeling to scale our measurements to the broader watershed scale. We report that nitrate travels on average 18 times farther downstream in buried than in open streams before being removed from the water column, indicating that burial substantially reduces N uptake in streams. Simulation modeling suggests that as burial expands throughout a river network, N uptake rates increase in the remaining open reaches which somewhat offsets reduced N uptake in buried reaches. This is particularly true at low levels of stream burial. At higher levels of stream burial, however, open reaches become rare and cumulative N uptake across all open reaches in the watershed rapidly declines. As a result, watershed-scale N export increases slowly at low levels of stream burial, after which increases in export become more pronounced. Stream burial in the lower, more urbanized portions of the watershed had a greater effect on N export than an equivalent amount of stream burial in the upper watershed. We suggest that stream daylighting (i.e., uncovering buried streams) can increase watershed-scale N retention

Effects of urban stream burial on organic matter dynamics and reach scale nitrate retention

Nitrogen (N) retention in streams is an important ecosystem service that may be affected by the widespread burial of streams in stormwater pipes in urban watersheds. We predicted that stream burial suppresses the capacity of streams to retain nitrate (NO3 −) by eliminating primary production, reducing respiration rates and organic matter availability, and increasing specific discharge. We tested these predictions by measuring whole-stream NO3 − removal rates using 15NO3 − isotope tracer releases in paired buried and open reaches in three streams in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) during four seasons. Nitrate uptake lengths were 29 times greater in buried than open reaches, indicating that buried reaches were less effective at retaining NO3 − than open reaches. Burial suppressed NO3 − retention through a combination of hydrological and biological processes. The channel shape of two of the buried reaches increased specific discharge which enhanced NO3 − transport from the channel, highlighting the relationship between urban infrastructure and ecosystem function. Uptake lengths in the buried reaches were further lengthened by low stream biological NO3 − demand, as indicated by NO3 − uptake velocities 17-fold lower than that of the open reaches. We also observed differences in the periphyton enzyme activity between reaches, indicating that the effects of burial cascade from the microbial to the ecosystem scale. Our results suggest that stream restoration practices involving “daylighting” buried streams have the potential to increase N retention. Further work is needed to elucidate the impacts of stream burial on ecosystem functions at the larger stream network scale

Overall rate constant measurements of the reaction of chloroalkylperoxy radicals with nitric oxide

The overall rate constants of the NO reaction with chloroalkylperoxy radicals derived from the Cl-initiated oxidation of several atmospherically abundant alkenes - ethene, propene, 1-butene, 2-butene, 2-methylpropene, 1,3-butadiene, and isoprene (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene) - were determined for the first time via the turbulent flow technique and pseudo-first-order kinetics conditions with high-pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry for the direct detection of chloroalkylperoxy radical reactants. The individual 100 Torr, 298 K rate constants for each monoalkene system were found to be identical within the 95% confidence interval associated with each separate measurement, whereas the corresponding rate constants for 1,3-butadiene and isoprene were both similar to 20% higher than the monoalkene mean value. Our previous study of the reaction of hydroxylalkylperoxy radicals (derived from the OH-initiated oxidation of alkenes) with NO yielded identical rate constants for all of the alkenes under study, with a rate constant value within the statistical uncertainty of the value determined here for the NO reaction of chloroalkylperoxy radicals derived from monoalkenes. Thus, the reaction of NO with chloroalkylperoxy radicals derived from dialkenes is found to be significantly faster than the NO reaction with either chloroalkylperoxy radicals derived from monoalkenes or hydroxyalkylperoxy radicals derived from either mono- or dialkenes

Kinetics and mechanistic studies of the atmospheric oxidation of alkynes

Kinetics studies of the OH-initiated oxidation of 2-butyne, propyne, and acetylene were conducted at 100 Torr and 298 K using turbulent flow chemical ionization mass spectrometry. The major oxidation products were identified, and with the aid of supporting electronic structure thermodynamics calculations, a general OH-initiated oxidation mechanism for the alkynes is proposed. The major product branching ratio and the product-forming rate constants for the 2-butyne-OH adduct + O2 reaction were experimentally determined as well. The atmospheric implications of the chemical oxidation mechanism and kinetics results are discussed

Direct kinetics study of the product forming channels of the reaction of isoprene-derived hydroxyperoxy radicals with NO

A direct kinetics study of the product-forming channels of the reaction of isoprene-derived hydroxyalkylperoxy radicals with NO has been performed at 100 Torr pressure and 298 K using the turbulent flow technique with high-pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry for the detection of reactants and products. For comparative purposes, a similar study was also performed for the reaction of 1- and 2-butene-derived hydroxyalkylperoxy radicals with NO. The measured hydroxyalkylnitrate product channel branching ratios were determined to be 0.061, 0.068, and 0.070 for the 1-butene, 2-butene, and isoprene systems, respectively. The results are compared to previous measurements of the hydroxyalkylnitrate-branching ratios for these systems, and the atmospheric significance of the results is discussed

Effects of urban stream burial on nitrogen uptake and ecosystem metabolism: implications for watershed nitrogen and carbon fluxes

Urbanization has resulted in the extensive burial and channelization of headwater streams, yet little is known about the impacts of stream burial on ecosystem functions critical for reducing downstream nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) exports. In order to characterize the biogeochemical effects of stream burial on N and C, we measured NO3 − uptake (using 15N-NO3 − isotope tracer releases) and gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) (using whole stream metabolism measurements). Experiments were carried out during four seasons, in three paired buried and open stream reaches, within the Baltimore Ecosystem Study Long-term Ecological Research site. Stream burial increased NO3 − uptake lengths by a factor of 7.5 (p \u3c 0.01) and decreased NO3 − uptake velocity and areal NO3 − uptake rate by factors of 8.2 (p \u3c 0.05) and 9.6 (p \u3c 0.001), respectively. Stream burial decreased GPP by a factor of 11.0 (p \u3c 0.01) and decreased ER by a factor of 5.0 (p \u3c 0.05). From fluorescence Excitation Emissions Matrices analysis, buried streams were found to have significantly altered C quality, showing less labile dissolved organic matter. Furthermore, buried streams had significantly lower transient storage (TS) and water temperatures. Differences in NO3 − uptake, GPP, and ER in buried streams, were primarily explained by decreased TS, light availability, and C quality, respectively. At the watershed scale, we estimate that stream burial decreases NO3 − uptake by 39 % and C production by 194 %. Overall, our results suggest that stream burial significantly impacts NO3 − uptake, stream metabolism, and the quality of organic C exported from watersheds. Given the large impacts of stream burial on stream ecosystem processes, daylighting or de-channelization of streams, through hydrologic floodplain reconnection, may have the potential to alter ecosystem functions in urban watersheds, when used appropriately

Trends in Drinking Water Nitrate Violations Across the United States

Drinking water maximum contaminant levels (MCL) are established by the U.S. EPA to protect human health. Since 1975, U.S. public water suppliers have reported MCL violations to the national Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS). This study assessed temporal and geographic trends for violations of the 10 mg nitrate-N L^–1 MCL in the conterminous U.S. We found that the proportion of systems in violation for nitrate significantly increased from 0.28% to 0.42% of all systems between 1994 and 2009 and then decreased to 0.32% by 2016. The number of people served by systems in violation decreased from 1.5 million in 1997 to 200 000 in 2014. Periodic spikes in people served were often driven by just one large system in violation. On average, Nebraska and Delaware had the greatest proportion of systems in violation (2.7% and 2.4%, respectively), while Ohio and California had the greatest average annual number of people served by systems in violation (278 374 and 139 149 people, respectively). Even though surface water systems that serve more people have been improving over time, groundwater systems in violation and average duration of violations are increasing, indicating persistent nitrate problems in drinking water