Research on Stormwater Quality
Urban areas contain numerous diffuse pollutants sources, which are released during wet weather.
One of the most important sources is wash-off of urban surfaces, including building facades and road pavements, and wash-out of stormwater transport elements, such as gutters, sewers and ponds. Two aspects of stormwater pollutants are of particular importance: (i) entry of harmful chemicals or microbiological agents into urban stormwater, and (ii) remedial measures, usually in the form of treatment. In order to develop treatment solutions, knowledge on the content of the water to be treated is needed.
Theme leader and co-leader: Heléne Österlund and Alexandra Müller
Current projects
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Pollutants in urban snow
Snow and snowmelt are sources of surface water pollution, which can deteriorate the surface water quality. The major sources of pollutants in urban snow are traffic, atmospheric deposition, de-icing salt and anti-skidding materials and urban littering. The pollutants of interest in snow and snowmelt...
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Stormwater bioretention: design, function and maintenance
Stormwater bioretention is a core green infrastructure technique mainly targeting water quality treatment. Further, they can also contribute to peak flow retention and urban amenity. Bioretention consists of vegetated soil filter media with a temporal water detention storage. The water infiltrates a...
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Stormwater ponds: Improved efficiency, characterisations and risks of accumulated sediment
Stormwater solids are generally recognised as one of the most important water quality parameters in stormwater runoff, as pollutants are transported on the surfaces of the solids from the pollution source to the receiving water bodies. The most common method of treating solids in stormwater runoff a...
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Stormwater pollutant removal in grassed swales
The grass-covered surfaces of green infrastructure facilities, such as grass swales and filter strips, are not only functional to convey runoff but also play an important role in removal of pollutants from stormwater runoff.
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Microplastics in stormwater
In recent years it has been an increased focus on microplastics, a pollutant group also found in stormwater. Actually, stormwater is one of the main vectors for microplastics from the urban environments and roads to the aquatic environment.
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Sources and characterization of stormwater pollutants
The building wash-off and its quality have been addressed during the past 30 years, but mostly with respect to heavy metals in roof drainage. In this project, a general suite of chemical substances and their wash-off and transport will be addressed, including for example metals and trace organics id...
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Area efficient stormwater treatment
While the above described diffuse pollution should be controlled as much as possible by source controls (e.g., substitutions of harmless materials), there are numerous cases where this is not feasible and the only available remedy of eco-toxicological risks is stormwater treatment.
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The effect of sewer pipe material on stormwater quality
LTU has carried out a pilot study on the effects of various sewer pipe materials on the quality of transported stormwater; great differences were observed for concrete, galvanized steel, and plastic pipes respectively