• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.1477-1488
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• 2014

Prevalent construction of impermeable pavements in urban areas causes diverse water-related environmental issues, such as lowering ground water levels and shortage of water supply for the living. In order to resolve such problems, a rainwater reservoir can be an effective and useful solution. The rainwater reservoir facilitates the hydrologic cycle in urban areas by temporarily retaining precipitation-runoff within a shallow subsurface layer for later use in a dry season. However, in order to use the stored water of precipitation-runoff, non-point source pollutants mostly retained in initial rainfall should be removed before being stored in the reservoir. Therefore, the purification system to filter out the non-point source pollutants is essential for the rainwater reservoir. The conventional soil filtration technology is well known to be able to capture non-point source pollutants in a economical and efficient way. This study adopted a sand filter layer (SFL) as a non-point source pollutant removal system in the rainwater reservoir, and conducted a series of lab-scale chamber tests and field tests to evaluate the pollutant removal efficiency and applicability of SFL. During the laboratory chamber experiments, three types of SFL with the different grain size characteristics were compared in the chamber with a dimension of $20cm{\times}30cm{\times}60cm$. To evaluate performance of the reservoir systems, the concentration of the polluted water in terms of TSS (Total Suspended Solids) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) were measured and compared. In addition, a reduction in hydraulic conductivity of SFL due to pollutant clogging was indirectly estimated. The optimum SFL selected through the laboratory chamber experiments was verified on the in-situ rainwater reservoir for field applicability.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.23-39
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• 2014

An artificial rainwater reservoir installed in urban areas for recycling rainwater is an eco-friendly facility for reducing storm water effluence. However, in order to recycle the rainwater directly, the artificial rainwater reservoir requires an auxiliary system that can remove non-point source pollutants included in the initial rainfall of urban area. Therefore, the conventional soil filtration technology is adopted to capture non-point source pollutants in an economical and efficient way in the purification system of artificial rainwater reservoirs. In order to satisfy such a demand, clogging characteristics of the sand filter layers with different grain-size distributions were studied with real non-point source pollutants. For this, a series of lab-scale chamber tests were conducted to make a prediction model for removal of non-point source pollutants, based on the clogging theory. The laboratory chamber experiments were carried out by permeating two types of artificially contaminated water through five different types of sand filter layers with different grain-size distributions. The two artificial contaminated waters were made by fine marine-clay particles and real non-point source pollutants collected from motorcar roads of Seoul, Korea. In the laboratory chamber experiments, the concentrations of the artificial contaminated water were measured in terms of TSS (Total Suspended Solids) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and compared with each other to evaluate the performance of sand filter layers. In addition, the accumulated weight of pollutant particles clogged in the sand filter layers was estimated. This paper suggests a prediction model for removal of non-point source pollutants with theoretical consideration of the physical characteristics such as the grain-size distribution and composition, and change in the hydraulic conductivity and porosity of sand filter layers. The lumped parameter ${\theta}$ related with the clogging property was estimated by comparing the accumulated weight of pollutant particles obtained from the laboratory chamber experiments and calculated from the prediction model based on the clogging theory. It is found that the lumped parameter ${\theta}$ has a significant influence on the amount of the pollutant particles clogged in the pores of sand filter layers. In conclusion, according to the clogging prediction model, a double-sand-filter layer consisting of two separate layers: the upper sand-filter layer with the effective particle size of 1.49 mm and the lower sand-filter layer with the effective particle size of 0.93 mm, is proposed as the optimum system for removing non-point source pollutants in the field-sized artificial rainwater reservoir.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.247-255
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• 2016

Non-point pollutants from surface runoff during rainfall exert adverse effects on urban river water quality management. In particular, the first flush effect during the initial phase of rainfall can deliver significant amounts of pollutant loads to surface waters with extremely high concentrations. In this study, a sustainable first flush effect management system was developed by using settling and filtration that require no additional power or chemicals. A pilot scale experiment has shown that the removal of total suspended solid (TSS), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) are in ranges of 84 - 95%, 31 - 46%, and 42 - 86%, respectively. An Integrated Stormwater Runoff Management System (ISTORMS) was also developed to efficiently manage the developed system by linking weather forecast, flow rate and water quality modeling of surface runoff and automatic monitoring systems in fields and in the system. This study can provide effective solutions for the management of urban river in terms of both quantity and quality.