Abstract

Thermal enrichment of receiving water bodies due to urban surface runoff has been recognized for some time as a potential threat to the aquatic environment, and many studies have repeatedly verified the effect (Pluhowski, 1970; Galli, 1990; Xie, 1993; Buren, 1999). However, thermal research on urban stormwater is basically still at an early stage, lacking theoretical and experimental support, especially the thermal behavior of shallow flow. In addition, a large number of variables are involved, causing many uncertainties, with the result that thermal modeling is not widely used.

After reviewing four previous studies (Verspagen, 1995; Buren, 1999; Norman and Roa, 2000; Haq, 2001), Li (2003) concluded that, currently, two major problems should be explored more deeply: (i) runoff temperatures should be calculated using a heat balance analysis; (ii) a model for temperature of runoff from urban stormwater drainage systems should include at least four categories of basic hydraulic element: overland surface, enclosed pipe, open channel and pond. Attempting to solve the two problems, the authors built a model, called HEATRAN, that computes runoff temperature directly, using a distributed heat balance for the four types of hydraulic element in urban drainage systems.

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