Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Vegetated Treatment Systems for Removing Contaminants Associated with Surface Water Toxicity in Agriculture and Urban Runoff
Published on: May 15, 2017
Progressive changes in water and sediment quality in a wetland system for control of highway runoff
H Pontier1, J B Williams, E May
1Department of Civil Engineering, University of Portsmouth, Lion Gate Building, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth, Hants, PO1 3HF, UK.
Abstract:
Innovative wetland based systems were designed and installed on the Newbury Bypass, Berkshire, England to provide flow balancing and pollution control for road runoff. The systems were monitored over 18 months to evaluate performance, pollutant removal processes and offer improved design and operation codes for this new application of wetlands. Water quality, sediment accumulation rates, and metal concentrations in size-fractionated, settling solids and deposited sediments were determined in parts of the system to provide information on spatial and temporal variability. The results presented here show that over the long term, there were progressive changes in parts of the system for BOD and COD and for metal concentrations in the sediment fractions, which occurred with linear (or semi log-linear) rates, despite variability in flow rates, retention times and in pollutant loading to the system. Future work will continue monitoring to increase the data set, examine possible processes contributing to the regression constants, and test the potential use of the regressions in system modelling. Attempts at modelling road runoff treatment using wetlands must allow for progressions, since the systems can only be effective if they retain removed metals in the sediment sink.
More Related Videos
12:50Continuous Instream Monitoring of Nutrients and Sediment in Agricultural Watersheds
Published on: September 26, 2017
08:09Wastewater Irrigation Impacts on Soil Hydraulic Conductivity: Coupled Field Sampling and Laboratory Determination of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity
Published on: August 19, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Quality of Water
Conservation of Mass in Moving, Nondeforming Control Volume
In the context of a detention basin, the conservation of mass states that the total mass of water entering the basin must equal the mass leaving the basin plus any accumulation of...
Gradually Varying Flow
Design Example: Analyzing Capacity Contours for Flood Risk Assessment
Net Change Theorem
Microbial Wastewater Treatment