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Hydrological Sciences Journal

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Field investigation of a dry detention pond with underground detention storage

Sai Hin Lai & Darrien Yau Seng Mah
a a b

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
b

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia Version of record first published: 11 Jun 2012

To cite this article: Sai Hin Lai & Darrien Yau Seng Mah (2012): Field investigation of a dry detention pond with underground detention storage, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57:6, 1249-1255 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2012.692016

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Hydrological Sciences Journal Journal des Sciences Hydrologiques, 57(6) 2012

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TECHNICAL NOTE Field investigation of a dry detention pond with underground detention storage
Sai Hin Lai1 and Darrien Yau Seng Mah2
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia laish@um.edu.my
2 1

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

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Received 12 April 2010; accepted 19 October 2011; open for discussion until 1 February 2013 Editor D. Koutsoyiannis Citation Lai, S.H. and Mah, D.Y.S., 2012. Field investigation of a dry detention pond with underground detention storage. Hydrological Sciences Journal , 57 (6), 12491255.

Abstract A dry pond is an urban drainage component designed to temporarily store stormwater runoff and to encourage inltration of surface water to the subsurface layer. This paper investigates eld measurement of a dry pond at Taiping Health Clinic, Perak, Malaysia that has been functioning well for ve years. The pond has a surface area of 195 m2 , maximum depth of 32 cm, and a storage capacity of 31.88 m3 . The study focused on the inltration functionality of the constructed dry pond and the results show that it has an average inltration rate of 125 mm/h and dries up in 330 min after being lled to a depth of 31 mm. A public-domain hydrological model was then employed to simulate hydrographs of ponding and draining, the results of which matched observations with 8698% accuracy. These results can lead to better understanding of the system and allow duplication of such a drainage design elsewhere.
Key words drainage; dry pond; eld observation; on-site detention; stormwater; urban hydrology

Etude de terrain dun bassin dinltration avec stockage souterrain

Rsum Un bassin dinltration est une composante du drainage urbain, conue pour stocker temporairement les eaux de ruissellement et pour favoriser leur inltration. Cet article sintresse aux mesures sur le terrain dun bassin dinltration situ dans un hpital de la ville de Taiping qui a bien fonctionn pendant cinq ans. Le bassin a une surface de 195 m2 , sa profondeur maximale est de 32 cm, et sa capacit de stockage de 31,88 m3 . Ltude a port sur la capacit dinltration de ce bassin articiel et les rsultats montrent quil a un taux dinltration moyen de 125 mm/h et se vidange en 330 min pour une profondeur de 31 mm. Un modle hydrologique du domaine public a ensuite t utilis pour simuler les hydrogrammes du bassin et du drainage, dont les rsultats correspondent aux observations avec une prcision de 86 98%. Ces rsultats permettent de mieux comprendre le fonctionnement du systme et de concevoir ailleurs des systmes analogues.
Mots clefs drainage; bassin dinltration; observation sur le terrain; site de stockage; eaux pluviales; hydrologie urbaine

1 INTRODUCTION A dry detention pond is an on-site detention (OSD) facility that is normally dry or empty when not in operation. It is designed to capture, temporarily hold and gradually release a volume of stormwater runoff to attenuate ow and to prevent ash ooding (Hussain et al. 2006, Zakaria 2007).

In urban stormwater management, wet ponds are reported extensively in the literature (e.g. Harrell and Ranjithan 2003, Zakaria et al. 2003, Frma and Waarab 2005, Kamphorst et al. 2005, Cheng 2008, Hancock et al. 2010, Shamsudin et al. 2011). However, for dry ponds there is generally a lack of performance data (Hatt et al. 2009). This Technical Note presents the results obtained from a eld study

ISSN 0262-6667 print/ISSN 2150-3435 online 2012 IAHS Press http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2012.692016 http://www.tandfonline.com

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and computer simulations to further explore the functionality of a dry pond, including: storage capacity, variation of inltration rate, response to rainfall and drying-up period. The results may help to guide the design of such a stormwater facility by interested bodies.

2 DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY AREA A small-scale sustainable urban drainage system (see Fig. 1) was constructed by the Public Works Department of the Government of Malaysia on an area of approximately 7 acres (approx. 2.83 ha) in Larut Matang district of Perak in 2005. The project consists of a public health clinic and a state-of-the-art environmentally friendly drainage system, designed according to the much encouraged Urban Stormwater Management Manual (SWMM) produced by the Malaysian Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID 2000). The drainage system uses a control at source principle, simulating the natural hydrological cycle in urban areas by combining inltration, detention storage, retarded ow, as well as runoff treatment techniques, as shown Fig. 2. Among the stormwater facilities provided by the system are: grassed swale, underground detention storage tanks and dry ponds (REDAC 2005). The dry pond reported in this paper (see Fig. 3) is designed with a storage function both above and below ground to cater for rainfall with an average

return interval (ARI) of 10 years. It has a maximum depth of 320 mm and surface area of 194.62 m2 with a maximum storage of 31.88 m3 (see Fig. 4). In the case of more intense rainfall, the water in the dry pond will ow directly to a grass swale nearby, through a spillway to avoid overow (see Fig. 1). The ground surface of the pond is planted with cow grass, while the pond outlet consists of small aggregate (see Fig. 5), with diameter in the range 310 mm, to facilitate inltration of stormwater from the pond to a subsurface detention storage (see Fig. 3) in less than 24 h.

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3 METHODOLOGY The engineering design of the dry pond concentrates on its inltration ability. In this context, a variety of mathematical methods, such as the Phi Index, Horton equation, NRCS Curve Number (CN) and GreenAmpt equations, are available for the computation of inltration. However, based on its ability to model incremental and cumulative inltration founded upon physically-based soil parameters, the Green-Ampt equation were selected to quantify inltration in this study. The Green-Ampt equations compute inltration in pervious units in two stages: (a) prior to saturation of the ground surface; and (b) after saturation (Mein and Larson 1973). For each time increment during which the rainfall intensity, i, is taken as constant, the actual inltration rate, f, is given by:

Dry pond

Outlet

Rainwater from building roof

Grassed swale

Fig. 1 Dry pond in Taiping Health Clinic.

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Previous areas: landscape area open space Impervious areas: car park paved road

Impervious areas: building

Perimeter drain

Energy dissipator

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Grassed swale

where F is the cumulative inltration volume since the beginning of the rain event (mm); Fs is the cumulative inltration volume required for ground surface saturation (mm); i is rainfall intensity, constant over the time step (mm/h); fp is inltration capacity (mm/h); f is the inltration rate (actual) (mm/h); S is capillary suction at the wetting front (mm of water); IMD is the initial moisture decit of the soil for the rain event (mm/mm); and Ks is the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil (mm/h). In order to further explore the functionality of the dry pond, a public-domain Stormwater Management Model, EPA SWMM 5 (US Environmental Protection Agency, http://www.epa.gov/athens/wwqtsc/html/ swmm.html), was employed to execute the underlying mathematics (see Fig. 6). The project model being developed has a catchment area of 1430 m2 (mainly the rooftop of the clinic building), while the dry pond is considered as a storage unit. In order to provide the model with necessary data, a eld study was carried out to collect the following: detailed topographic survey data of the pond and surrounding area; inltration data using double-ring tests, to an accuracy of 0.5 mm; rainfall dataan automatic raingauge was installed in the compound of the study area; the recorded rainfall data have an accuracy of 0.05 mm and a continuous time step of 5 min. water levels in the dry pond (at three locations) measured with a stick gauge to an accuracy of 0.5 mm; readings at each observation point were taken initially at 1-min intervals, and then at 10 min intervals, until the pond was emptied.

Detention storage

On-site stormwater detention (OSD)

Outlet

Fig. 2 Design concept of stormwater water facilities (REDAC 2005).

if F < Fs then f = i and if i > Ks then Fs = S IMD i KS1 (1)

and if i < Ks then No calculation for Fs if F > Fs then f = fp and fp = Ks S IMD 1+ F (2)

The rainfall and water-level data were collected for a period of 9 months, from July 2009 to March 2010, which included the monsoon season with frequent and heavy rainfall from November to January. Overall, more than ve complete data sets, including a 10-year ARI rainfall event (3 January 2010), were collected for the analysis. These data are crucial to provide the model with a proper ground model, necessary inputs, as well as to provide data for calibration and validation of results from model simulation. 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Several in situ inltration tests were carried out to study the inltration rate in the pond. Generally, similar results were obtained, with an equilibrium of

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Closed turfing

1 4 4
200 450 100 100 816 100

1 3mm10mm Gravel 2 2 Nos single module enclosed in hydronet

Clean river sand

Fig. 3 Cross-sectional prole of selected dry pond (REDAC 2005).

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35 30 25 Volume (m3) 20 15 10 5 0 0 5 Water depth (m) 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 y = 195.71x2 + 41.845x - 0.5766

Fig. 4 Storage capacity of the dry pond.

Outlet with aggregate

Inlet

Fig. 5 Inlet and outlet of the dry pond.

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Fig. 6 Dry pond modelling.

25

Infiltration rate (mm/hr)

20 y = 23.131e-0.783x 15

10

0 0.00

0.50

1.00 Time (hr)

1.50

2.00

2.50

Fig. 7 Variation of inltration rate in the dry pond.

inltration rate, fc , of 3mm/h in all cases, and initial inltration rate, fo , in the range 25.7826.13 mm/h. An example graphical representation of the inltration rate in the pond with combined top soil and river sand types is shown in Fig. 7. This graph shows that the inltration capacity can be represented as a function of time similar to the Horton equation. Such a relationship is useful for the analysis of inltration only if the volume of water inltrated, or whether the rainfall rate is greater/lower than the inltration rate, can be ignored. Among the parameters that are important in simulating the variation of water level in the dry pond are the hydraulic conductivity, K , and suction head, , of

the soil type. In this case, the calibrated value of K is 125 mm/h, while is 55 mm. The data for several rainfall events were obtained for analysis in this study. Generally, it is observed that the pond responds fairly well to rainfall, with the water level achieving a peak when rainfall is at a peak. After lling to a depth of 31 cm, the pond was found to dry up through inltration in 5.5 h (see Fig. 8), which satises the suggested design criteria (i.e. empty in <24 h). Examples of model simulation are depicted in Figs 8 (multiple events) and 9 (single event). The results closely match the observed data in most cases in terms of timing and peak depths, with coefcients of determination, R2 in the range of 0.860.98.

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(a) 50 Water depth (cm) 40 30

Sai Hin Lai and Darrien Yau Seng Mah

0 5 10 20 10 0 0 50 Time (min) 100 150
Observed

15 20 350

200

250
Simulated

300

Rainfall depth (mm) R2 = 0.8607

(b) 35 30 25 Simulated (cm) 20 15 10 5 0 5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 Observed (cm)

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Fig. 8 Simulation of event on 3 January 2010: (a) observed and computed water depths with rainfall; and (b) t of water depths by steady ow routing.
(a) 50 45 40 Water depth (cm) 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 20 40 60 80 Time (min) 100 120 140 160 180 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0 12.0 200

Observed

Simulated

Rainfall depth (mm)

(b) 30
R2 = 0.98

25 20 Simulated (cm) 15 10 5 0 0 5 5 10 15 Observed (cm) 20 25 30

Fig. 9 Simulation of event on 29 January 2010: (a) observed and computed water depths with rainfall; and (b) t of water depths by steady ow routing.

Rainfall depth (mm)

Rainfall depth (mm)

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5 CONCLUSIONS A public-domain hydrological model was adopted to simulate the emptying of a dry pond by inltration processes. The maximum capacity of the dry pond was found to be at 31.88 m3 . When the depth reached 32 cm, the pond dried up through inltration in less than 5.5 h. The hydraulic conductivity, K , is 125 mm/h and suction head is 55 mm. The R2 values obtained from measuring the accuracy of this water depth model indicate that the model represents the eld data quite well. The model can be employed as an effective tool or, alternatively, to continue simulations to evaluate the emptying capacity of other dry ponds.
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Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to the Government of Malaysia for the nancial support from Universiti Sains Malaysia through the Short Term grant no. 304/REDAC/6035263, and University of Malaya through the UMRG grant no. RG126/11SUS. The authors also would like to thank the Ministry of Health Malaysia; Taiping Health Clinic, KK2; and River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC) for their permission to conduct the research work in these premises and for technical assistance. REFERENCES
Cheng, Y., 2008. Sediment discharge from a storm-water retention pond. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, ASCE, 134, doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9437(2008)134:5(606).

Chow, V .T., Maidment, D.R., and Mays, L.W., 1998. Applied hydrology. New York: McGraw-Hill. DID (Department of Irrigation and Drainage), 2000. On-site detention. In: Urban stormwater management manual for Malaysia. Malaysia: DID, 132. Frma, C. and Waarab, S., 2005. Treatment of stormwater using a detention pond and constructed lters. Urban Water Journal, 2, 5158. Hancock, G.S., Holley, J.W., and Chambers, R.M., 2010. A eldbased evaluation of wet retention ponds: how effective are ponds at water quantity control? Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 46 (6), 11451158. Harrell, L.J. and Ranjithan, S.R., 2003. Detention pond design and land use planning for watershed management. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, ASCE, 129 (2), 98106. Hatt, B.E., Fletcher, T.D., and Deletic, A., 2009. Hydrologic and pollutant removal performance of stormwater bioltration systems at the eld scale. Journal of Hydrology, 365, 310321. Hussain, C.F., et al. 2006. Water quality performance of dry detention ponds with under-drains. Technical reports for Minnesota Department of Transportation. Document no. MN/RC-2006-43 (December). Kamphorst, E.C., et al. 2005. Generating 3D soil surfaces from 2D height measurements to determine depression storage. Catena, 62, 189205. Mein, R.G. and Larson, C.L., 1973. Modeling inltration during steady rain. Water Resources Research, 9, 384394. REDAC, 2005. BIOECODS at Taiping, Perak [online]. Malaysia: River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre. Available from http://redac.eng.usm.my/html/projects/ ProjekTaiping/Index.htm [Accessed 23 March 2010]. Shamsudin, S., Rahman, A.A., and Darom, A.R.M., 2011. Determination of detention pond sediment loads using Monte Carlo simulation, Malaysia. Journal of Environmental Hydrology, 19, 19. Zakaria, N.A., 2007. Sustainable urban drainage system, solutions to ash ood, river pollution and water shortage. Penang: Universiti Sains Malaysia, ISBN 978-983-861-352-1. Zakaria, N.A. et al., 2003. Bio-Ecological Drainage Syetem (BIOECODS) for water quantity and quality control. International Journal of River Basin Management, 1 (3), 237251.