Stormwater control measures modify event-based stream temperature dynamics in urbanized headwaters

Next week, the Watershed Hydrology Lab will be well represented at the CUAHSI 2014 Biennial Colloquium. We’ll be presenting four posters, so here come the abstracts…

Stormwater control measures modify event-based stream temperature dynamics in urbanized headwaters

Grace Garner1, Anne Jefferson2*, Sara McMillan3, Colin Bell4 and David M. Hannah1
1School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
2Department of Geology, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44240, USA
3Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA
4Department of Infrastructure and Environmental System, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA

Urbanization is a widespread and growing cause of hydrological changes and ecological impairment in headwater streams. Stream temperature is an important control on physical, chemical and ecological processes, and is an often neglected water quality variable, such that the effects of urban land use and stormwater management on stream temperature are poorly constrained. Our work aims to identify the influence of stormwater control measures (SCMs) of differing design and location within the watershed on the event-based temperature response of urban streams to precipitation in the North Carolina Piedmont, in order to improve prediction and management of urban impacts. Stream temperature was measured within SCMs, and upstream and downstream of them in two streams between June and September 2012 and 2013. Approximately 60 precipitation events occurred during that period. To unambiguously identify temperature increases resulting from precipitation, surges were identified as a rise in water temperature of ?0.2°C between the hours of 15:30 and 5:30, when the diurnal temperature cycle is either decreasing or static on days without precipitation. Surges up to 5°C were identified in response to precipitation events, with surges occurring both upstream and downstream of the SCM under some conditions. Surges were also recorded within the SCMs, confirming that temperature surges are the result of heated urban runoff. Classification tree modeling was used to evaluate the influence of hydrometeorological drivers on the generation and magnitude of temperature surges. In both streams, event precipitation, antecedent precipitation, and air temperature range were identified as the drivers of whether or not a surge was observed and how large the surge was, though the order and thresholds of these variables differed between the two sites. In a stream with an off-line, pond SCM, the presence of the pond in the lower 10% of the watershed did not affect the magnitude of temperature surges within the stream, but the pond itself had a wider range of surge magnitudes than did the stream. In a watershed with a large in-line pond, and a downstream contributing wetland SCM receiving flow from 40% of the watershed, the wetland increased both the frequency and magnitude of temperature surges observed in the stream. Our results suggest dynamic hydrometeorological conditions, SCM design, and position within a watershed all influence whether stormwater management reduces or enhances temperature surges observed within urban headwater streams, and that these factors should be considered in the recommendations for urban stormwater management systems.