Snow pollution management in urban areas: an idea whose time has come?

Abstract

Needs for extending the principles of a sustainable urban drainage approach to the winter season with snow and pollutant accumulations have been so far unanswered. One of the first steps to remedy this situation is to make available a prototype snow management tool (PSMT) described herein. It is a simple empirical spreadsheet tool, as yet untested, which uses generally available input data to simulate accumulation of snow (as snow water equivalent) and pollutants in an urban catchment, intermittent snowmelt episodes, and snow management options including in situ melting, removal from the catchment, treatment of snowmelt by settling, and snow disposal in the receiving waters. The tool output comprises snow and the selected pollutant mass balances, and pollutant concentrations in snowmelt from individual snow deposits. Such data provide decision support for choosing the methods of disposal for individual snow deposits. The testing and refinement of the tool is planned.