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Updated: Jul 13, 2025

Design and Construction of an Urban Runoff Research Facility
Published on: August 8, 2014
Influence of landscape patterns on nitrate and particulate organic nitrogen inputs to urban stormwater runoff
Yifan Hou1, Shihui Wang1, Yukun Ma1
1State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekou Outer Street, Beijing, 100875, PR China.
Abstract:
This study investigated the effect of the landscape pattern of permeable/impermeable patches on NO3--N and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) concentrations during stormwater runoff transport and their source contributions. Six landscape pattern indices, namely, mean proximity index (MPI), largest patch index (LPI), mean shape index (MSI), landscape shape index (LSI), connect index (CONNECT), and splitting index (SPLIT), were selected to reflect the fragmentation, complexity, and connectivity of permeable patches in urban catchments. The results show that lower fragmentation, higher complexity, and greater connectivity can reduce NO3--N concentrations in road runoff and drainage flow (i.e., the flow in the stormwater drainage network), as well as PON concentrations in road runoff. Further, the above landscape pattern is effective for mitigating the contributions of NO3--N and PON from road runoff. Low impact development (LID) can be incorporated with the landscape pattern of permeable/impermeable patches to mitigate nitrogen pollution in urban stormwater at the catchment scale by optimizing the spatial arrangement.
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