Stormwater Management: Calculation of Traffic Area Runoff Loads and Traffic Related Emissions

Abstract

Metals such as antimony, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc can be highly relevant pollutants in stormwater runoff from traffic areas because of their occurrence, toxicity, and non-degradability. Long-term measurements of their concentrations, the corresponding water volumes, the catchment areas, and the traffic volumes can be used to calculate specific emission loads and annual runoff loads that are necessary for mass balances. In the literature, the annual runoff loads are often specified by a distinct catchment area (e.g., g/ha). These loads were summarized and discussed in this paper for all seven metals and three types of traffic areas (highways, parking lots, and roads; 45 sites). For example, the calculated median annual runoff loads of all sites are 355 g/ha for copper, 110 g/ha for lead (only data of the 21st century), and 1960 g/ha for zinc. In addition, historical trends, annual variations, and site-specific factors were evaluated for the runoff loads. For Germany, mass balances of traffic related emissions and annual heavy metal runoff loads from highways and total traffic areas were calculated. The influences on the mass fluxes of the heavy metal emissions and the runoff pollution were discussed. However, a statistical analysis of the annual traffic related metal fluxes, in particular for different traffic area categories and land uses, is currently not possible because of a lack of monitoring data.

Stochastic Method for Evaluating Removal, Fate and Associated Uncertainties of Micropollutants in a Stormwater Biofilter at an Annual Scale

“…The calculated micropollutant loads in untreated road runoff are summarized in Table 3. The median annual Cu load per road surface area (851 g/ha/year) is high compared to most values issued from a review of annual traffic area runoff loads (median 355, with values ranging from 34-3780 g/ha/year), while that of Zn (2360 g/ha/year) is slightly below the median (2600 g/ha/year) issued from the same data set [31]. Table 3.…”

Hydrophilic trace organic contaminants in urban stormwater: occurrence, toxicological relevance, and the need to enhance green stormwater infrastructure

“…12,13 It has been known for decades that urban stormwater is a contributor to the impairment of water quality. 14 Thus, monitoring and management programs have focused on conventional stormwater pollutants such as total suspended solids (TSS), [15][16][17] nutrients, 15,18 pathogens, [19][20][21] metals, [15][16][17][18]22,23 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 17,[24][25][26] polychlorinated biphenyls, 27 and certain pesticides. 28,29 While stormwater research has long concentrated on particle-associated pollutants, a review article by LeFevre et al 18 highlighted the importance of dissolved stormwater pollutants (mainly nutrients, toxic metals, and hydrocarbons) and identified a major lack of knowledge about hyphil-TrOCs.…”

Road Pavement, Road Pollution, and Sustainability under Climate Change Increased Temperature

“…The main sources of emitted Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) were vehicle exhaust gases, followed by tire wear, motor lubricant oils, road surface wear, and brake linings. Contributions from surrounding land use, such as agriculture, industrial, or urban areas, are also acknowledged (e.g., [32]). Solids or dust found in road pavement are originated from distinct sources and materials: pavement wear; construction sites or rehabilitation works; atmospheric fallout; anthropogenic wastes; and vehicles components deterioration-with tire wear being a relevant source [21,33,34].…”

“…It has been demonstrated that the discharge of even small concentrations of road runoff pollutants can lead to impacts in confined water bodies (e.g., [47]). It is not just the total concentration that must be evaluated; the fraction of pollutants present in dissolved or particulate form is relevant for impact evaluation and the design of treatment systems [32,48,49]. Several countries have already characterized national road runoff constitution and know which are the most relevant pollutants.…”