TY - JOUR
T1 - The implementation of biofiltration systems, rainwater tanks and urban irrigation in a single-layer urban canopy model
AU - Demuzere, M.
AU - Coutts, A. M.
AU - Göhler, M.
AU - Broadbent, Ashley
AU - Wouters, H.
AU - van Lipzig, N. P.M.
AU - Gebert, L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is funded by the Flemish regional government through a contract as a FWO (Fund for Scientific Research) post-doctoral position. The CLMU simulations are supported by the Australian National Computing Infrastructure (NCI) National Facility at the ANU and the computational resources and services provided by the Hercules Foundation and the Flemish Government – department EWI. The authors would like to thank Jan Diels (KU Leuven) for his useful comments on the soil hydraulic properties and Keith Oleson (NCAR) for his suggestions on the implementation of the biofiltration system. We would also like to thank Yarra City Council for access to the tree-pits and acknowledge the contribution from the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities. Monash University provides research into the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities through the Monash Water for Liveability Centre. Finally we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Urban vegetation is generally considered as a key tool to modify the urban energy balance through enhanced evapotranspiration (ET). Given that vegetation is most effective when it is healthy, stormwater harvesting and retention strategies (such as water sensitive urban design) could be used to support vegetation and promote ET. This study presents the implementation of a vegetated lined bio-filtration system (BFS) combined with a rainwater tank (RWT) and urban irrigation system in the single-layer urban canopy model Community Land Model-Urban. Runoff from roof and impervious road surface fractions is harvested and used to support an adequate soil moisture level for vegetation in the BFS. In a first stage, modelled soil moisture dynamics are evaluated and found reliable compared to observed soil moisture levels from biofiltration pits in Smith Street, Melbourne (Australia). Secondly, the impact of BFS, RWT and urban irrigation on ET is illustrated for a two-month period in 2012 using varying characteristics for all components. Results indicate that (i) a large amount of stormwater is potentially available for indoor and outdoor water demands, including irrigation of urban vegetation, (ii) ET from the BFS is an order of magnitude larger compared to the contributions from the impervious surfaces, even though the former only covers 10% of the surface fraction and (iii) attention should be paid to the cover fraction and soil texture of the BFS, size of the RWT and the surface fractions contributing to the collection of water in the RWT. Overall, this study reveals that this model development can effectuate future research with state-of-the-art urban climate models to further explore the benefits of vegetated biofiltration systems as a water sensitive urban design tool optimised with an urban irrigation system to maintain healthy vegetation.
AB - Urban vegetation is generally considered as a key tool to modify the urban energy balance through enhanced evapotranspiration (ET). Given that vegetation is most effective when it is healthy, stormwater harvesting and retention strategies (such as water sensitive urban design) could be used to support vegetation and promote ET. This study presents the implementation of a vegetated lined bio-filtration system (BFS) combined with a rainwater tank (RWT) and urban irrigation system in the single-layer urban canopy model Community Land Model-Urban. Runoff from roof and impervious road surface fractions is harvested and used to support an adequate soil moisture level for vegetation in the BFS. In a first stage, modelled soil moisture dynamics are evaluated and found reliable compared to observed soil moisture levels from biofiltration pits in Smith Street, Melbourne (Australia). Secondly, the impact of BFS, RWT and urban irrigation on ET is illustrated for a two-month period in 2012 using varying characteristics for all components. Results indicate that (i) a large amount of stormwater is potentially available for indoor and outdoor water demands, including irrigation of urban vegetation, (ii) ET from the BFS is an order of magnitude larger compared to the contributions from the impervious surfaces, even though the former only covers 10% of the surface fraction and (iii) attention should be paid to the cover fraction and soil texture of the BFS, size of the RWT and the surface fractions contributing to the collection of water in the RWT. Overall, this study reveals that this model development can effectuate future research with state-of-the-art urban climate models to further explore the benefits of vegetated biofiltration systems as a water sensitive urban design tool optimised with an urban irrigation system to maintain healthy vegetation.
KW - Biofiltration systems
KW - Climate sensitive urban design
KW - Community Land Model-Urban (CLMU)
KW - Urban evapotranspiration
KW - Urban irrigation
KW - Water sensitive urban design
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U2 - 10.1016/j.uclim.2014.10.012
DO - 10.1016/j.uclim.2014.10.012
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84927593364
VL - 10
SP - 148
EP - 170
JO - Urban Climate
JF - Urban Climate
SN - 2212-0955
IS - P1
ER -
