Pollutant removal and Hydraulic reduction performance of field grassed swales during runoff simulation experiments

Abstract

Four different field swales were tested in this study, using 24 standardised synthetic runoff simulation experiments to evaluate their performance in removing Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorous (TP) from stormwater runoff. Hydraulic reduction capability of the swales was also assessed. The study demonstrated that a swale's TSS removal performance is highly dependent on the inlet TSS concentrations. Results showed that between 50% and 80% of the TSS was generally removed within the first 10 m of the swale length. The study found no reduction in TN concentrations due to treatment by the swales. However, it did demonstrate a reduction in measured TP levels of between 20% and 23% between the inlet and the outlet. The study results demonstrated that swales can be successfully used to attenuate peak stormwater flow rates, reduce runoff volumes and to improve the quality of stormwater runoff, particularly in runoff with high concentrations of TSS and TP. The results from this study will assist designers to estimate the appropriate length of swale required to achieve specific TSS and TP pollution reductions in urban stormwater runoff and to reduce downstream runoff volumes. © 2014 by the authors.