Most of the pollution found in highway runoff is both directly and indirectly contributed by vehicles such as cars and trucks. The constituents that contribute the majority of the pollution, such as metals, chemical oxygen demand, oil and grease, are generally deposited on the highways. These can become very harmful and detrimental to human health when they come in contact with our water system. The connecting tie between these harmful highway-made pollution and our water system, which includes our ground waters and surface waters, is rainfall. The main objective of this runoff study was to characterize and assess the quantity and quality of the storm water runoff of a bridge deck that discharged into a receiving water body. The bridge deck and the creek were located in the coastal margin region in the southeast area of Texas on the border of Harris and Galveston counties. Flow-activated water samplers and flow-measuring devices were installed to quantitatively determine the rate of flow of the bridge deck and determine different pollutant loading by sampling the receiving water body (Clear Creek). The collected samples were analyzed for total suspended solids, toxic metals, and other relevant constituents of concerns. The results illustrated that the runoff from the bridge deck exhibited low total suspended solids concentrations (which were highest in the creek). However, other metal constituents like the zinc and cooper concentration were high and above standards. The phosphate concentrations in the creek were the highest and exceeded EPA standards. Several nitrate concentrations were also noticeably above EPA standards.

This study presents the development of a cell-based routing model. The model developed is a two parameter hydrological routing model that uses a coarse resolution stream network to route runoff from each cell in the watershed to the outlet. The watershed is divided into a number of equal cells, which are approximated as cascade of linear reservoirs or tanks. Water is routed from a cell downstream, depending on the flow direction of the cell, using the cascade of tanks. The routing model consists of two phases, first is the overland flow routing, which is followed by the channel flow routing. In this study, the cell-to-cell stream flow routing model is applied to the Brazos River Basin to demonstrate the impact of the cascade of tanks on the flow over a simple linear reservoir method. This watershed was tested with a uniform runoff depth in absence of observed runoff data. A case study on Waller Creek in Austin, Texas with observed runoff depths and stream flow is used to demonstrate the calibration and validation of model parameters.

Thesis (M.S.) in Ecology and Environmental Science--University of Maine, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-74).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-118). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.) in Natural Resources, Aquatic Toxicology--University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-82).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-118). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2003. / Title from title page screen (viewed Sept., 24, 2003). Thesis advisor: Randall W. Gentry. Document formatted into pages (viii, 164 p. : ill. (some col., col. maps)). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-122).

Stormwater flooding problems become more and more serious in China recently. Besides the effects of global warming, the deficiency of conventional storm drain system can’t be neglected. This thesis is aiming to analyze the potential problems of existing municipal drainage infrastructure, introduce a more advanced alternative -- Low Impact Development (LID) to deal with urban stormwater management in residential development, which is a soft approach favoring natural way of treatment. LID as a solution not only reduce the pressure in drainage pipes during flood peak, but can also supplement underground water ecologically, which could positively protect precious water resources in China. Since urbanization is extremely rapid in China, if not understanding the fundamental reason, solely depending on increasing the diameters of drainage pipes will never catch up the speed of runoff that generated by impervious area, which resulting from more and more surface runoff being circulated and centralized to the storm drain system in a shorter and shorter time. The objective of this thesis is to let authority and public recognize the fundamental reason of this problem and at the same time realize the benefits of LID. Moreover, provide a residential landscape design that integrated LID within Chinese specific urban context as an alternative. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture