Limitations of HSPF in Simulating Sub-Urban Pollutant Runoff Into Receiving Waters
Abstract
The HSPF (Hydrologic Simulation Program - Fortran) model is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency endorsed mechanistic model for simulating the water quality impact of storm triggered point and non-point source loading. Although HSPF simulates both impervious and pervious hydrologic components of watershed runoff, the model cannot represent important urban transport mechanisms that route pollutants to receiving waters, including storm sewer runoff, spatially variable watertable triggered runoff, and basin-interior trapping of pollutants in vegetative filters and detention basins. These limitations, when revealed in modeling runoff in NYC's sub-urbanized Croton drinking water supply area, were overcome by loosely coupling HSPF with three other runoff models, Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), Hydrologic-Simulation Program - Fortran (HSPF), Program for Predicting Polluted Particle Passage through Pits, Puddles and Ponds (P8), and Topographic-based Land Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (TOPLATS). Combined, these four models simulate the following transport pathways of concern: 1) impervious processes of catch basin and storm sewer hydraulics, 2) pervious processes of infiltration, surface runoff, sub-surface storm flow, watertable dynamics, and 3) reach and reservoir processes of runoff routing and storm runoff detention. In addition to providing process simulation for investigators, the coupling of these models ultimately enables selection of more appropriate parameter values for a separate set of HSPF model runs that lump the dynamics revealed in the companion models.
- Publication:
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AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AGUSM...H42B01E
- Keywords:
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- 1803 Anthropogenic effects;
- 1806 Chemistry of fresh water;
- 1860 Runoff and streamflow