• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 2009

Floodplain areas of major South Korean rivers were determined by analyzing topographical maps and hydraulic properties of floodplain soil were measured using disc tension infiltrometer. To assess the possibility of treating secondary effluents of municipal wastewater with floodplain soil, a computer code for the analysis of unsaturated flow in soil was employed along with searches conducted in the literature. Based on the data generated, an estimate of total floodplain filtration capacity in Korea was obtained. The results of our study reveal that Korean floodplains have surface soil that is adequate for treating water. Moreover, the distributions of floodplains are substantial over the entire reaches of the rivers, indicating that the conditions are favorable for floodplain filtration as additional treatment of secondary effluent. The capacity of floodplain filtration in Korea is circa 182,000,000 $m^3$/day and most of the rivers are estimated to have enough capacity of floodplain filtration to meet all the secondary effluent, indicating that this technology may be expected to make further improvements on river water quality. Furthermore, this method may also be applied to better the source-water quality for drinking water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.430-437
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• 2012

In order to obtain information on the design parameters of the horizontal laterals in floodplain filtration, laboratory-scale sand-box experiments were performed where the head distributions on the laterals and the groundwater profiles were measured according to the change in parameters including lateral diameter, hydraulic conductivity of the sand, water level at the well and raw-water supply rate. Measured data were analyzed using a numerical code in order to identify the discharge intensity distribution along the laterals. It was observed from the result that the lowering of the water level at the well had minimal adverse effect on the performance of the floodplain filtration. Results also elucidated that the low conveyance of the laterals to transmit the filtrate was compensated and supplemented by a natural augmentation in horizontal conveyance through the aquifer when the raw-water supply rate exceeded the adequate recovery rate. With this mechanism, the water quality is expected to improve further since the travel distance through the aquifer is amplified. Based on these findings it can be suggested that the diameter of the lateral used in the floodplain filtration may be smaller than those in riverbank/bed filtration. It was also found that the ratio between the head loss occurring in a lateral and the total head loss in the floodplain filtration was proportional to the exit velocities of the laterals, which may be used to design and/or evaluate the lateral in floodplain filtration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.120-131
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• 2011

A pilot-scale experiment of floodplain filtration with a filtration depth of 3.6m was performed employing flood/rest type raw-water supply system in an effort to find ways to improve river water quality by additional treatments of discharged effluent from sewage treatment plant. Soil samples were taken from 3 sites including Gumi, Daegu and Gimhae along the Nakdong river. Reductions of infiltration rates following increases in operating time was investigated in each soil sample, along with the analysis of removal efficiencies of various pollutants according to different depths and infiltration rates. The results show incremental development of clogging on the soil surface with increases in operation time, and illustrate exponential decrease in the infiltration rate. The time required for the removal of the clog from the soil surface was longer than 2 weeks for all soil samples analyzed. The stable infiltration rates for soils were 5 m/day for Gumi and for Daegu and Gimhae was 1 m/day. In unsaturated soils dissolved oxygen levels increased following the increase of filtration depth, suggesting that alternating application of flood and rest for raw-water supply effectively keeps the soil environment aerobic. For all soils, the nature of pollutant removal depending on the depth of filtration remained the same regardless of the infiltration rate. Most of the BOD and turbidity were removed within 1.2 m, about 30% of COD was removed within 3.6m and was expected to be removed further with increases in filtration depth. Nitrification occurred near the surface of all soils; however there was no significant removal of nitrogen in the filtration depths tested in this study. Although removal rate of phosphorus was low for Gumi's soil, it was high enough for other soils, suggesting that the method developed in this study could significantly improve river water quality.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.84-91
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• 2002

If contaminated river water is sprayed over the floodplain, organic matter and nitrogen would be removed by microbial processes in the rhizosphere of vegetation during the filtration through soil. In this study we tested the organic matter and nitrogen removal from contaminated river water by the floodplain filtration. Model system of floodplain was constructed using a PVC pipe (15 cm i.d. ${\times}$ 150 cm L) which was packed with a loamy sand soil collected from a floodplain in Nakdong river. The model system was instrumented with soil solution samplers and gas samplers. A river water collected from Omogcheon in Kyongsan was sprayed from top of the model system at three different rates. The concentration of organic matter, DO, $NO_3^-$, $NO_2^-$, $NH_4^+$, $N_2$ and $N_2O$, and redox potential were measured as a function of soil depth for 24 days after the system reached a steady state. When river water was sprayed at the rates of 40.8 and 68.0 $l/m^2/day$, a significant reductive condition for denitrification was developed at below 5-cm depth of the soil. When the water reached at 90-cm depth of the soil, COD and concentration of inorganic nitrogen were lowered, on an average, from 18.7 to 5 mg/l and from 2.7 to 0.4 mg/l, respectively. $N_2$ comprised most of the N gas evolved from denitrification and $N_2O$ concentrations emitted at the surface of soil were less than 1 {\mu}l/l. The effective removal of organic matter and nitrogen by the filtration in the model system of floodplain demonstrates that the native floodplains, which include rhizosphere of vegetation at the top soil, could be more effective in the treatment of contaminated river waters and other industrial waste waters containing high concentration of organic matter and nitrogen.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.957-964
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• 2009

Sand tank experiments were performed along with on-site supplier experiments in order to obtain design factors for the raw-water supply system in floodplain filtration. Results of the sand tank experiment elucidated that the infiltration rate was approximately proportional to the soil permeability and was not significantly influenced by short periods of rest. The average daily infiltration rate calculated by taking both flood and rest periods into account increased with increasing flood period, and was observed to reach an asymptote. Under the conditions of this study, the maximum infiltration rates obtained for both Daegu and Mulgeum soils with 15 min/ 30 min of rest/flood periods were 6.3 m/day and 1.4 m/day respectively, which were 42% and 70% of their hydraulic conductivities, respectively. The process of soil filtration resulted in a gradual decrease of hydraulic conductivity; a decrease of 27% was observed for the soil of Mulgeum over a period of 8 days. From the data obtained from the supplier experiment, it was evident that the radius of the flooded area increased as the supply rate increased for soils of Gumi and Sangju, however, there was an inverse correlation between hydraulic conductivity and the rate of increase in the radius. Results also showed that the time required to cover the entire soil surface with water, in other words, the time to reach the maximum flood radius from the commencement of the water emission was as short as 3 to 4 minutes for all the soils. Also, the average infiltration rate for the entire flood period did not change significantly when the rest period was shorter than an hour.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 2003

If contaminated river water is sprayed over a floodplain, the microbial processes can simultaneously remove organic matter and nitrogen during the infiltration through the sediment profile. The effect of rhizosphere on the removal of organic matter and nitrogen from contaminated river water was investigated using floodplain lysimeters. River water was sprayed at a rate of $68.0L\;m^{-2}\;d^{-1}$ on the top of the lysimeters with or without weed vegetation on the surface, Concentrations of $NO_3$, $NH_4$ and dissolved oxygen (DO), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) and Eh in water were measured as functions of depth for 4 weeks after the system reached a steady state water flow and biological reactions. A significant reductive-condition for denitrification developed in the 30-cm surface profile of lysimeters with weeds. At a depth of 30 cm, COD and $NO_3$-N concentration decreased to 5.2 and $0.9mg\;L^{-1}$ from the respective influent concentrations of 18.2 and $9.8mg\;L^{-1}$. The removal of $NO_3$ in lysimeters with weeds was significantly higher than in those without weeds. Vegetation on the top was assumed to remove $NO_3$ directly by absorption and to create more favorable conditions for denitrification by supply of organic matter and rapid $O_2$ consumption, In the lysimeters without weeds, further removal of $NO_3$ was limited by the lack of an electron donor, i.e. organic matter. These results suggest that the filtration through native floodplains, which include rhizospheres of vegetation on the surface, can be effective for the treatment of contaminated river water.