Suchergebnisse

The paper is a retrospective analysis of trends in quantitative empirical and theoretical studies of urban surface runoff from the mid-19th century to the early 90s of the 20th century, when the largest Soviet scientific school for such studies in the city of Kharkov was dissolved. As shown in the paper, the calculation methods for estimating peak discharges of urban surface runoff can be traced back to a pioneering work by T.J. Mulvaney (1850), which laid the foundation for the "rational method". Later this method was developed in the works by E.Kuichling (1889) and D.E.Lloyd-Davies (1906). The significance of developing such a method was determined by frequent cases of flooding urban territories and by the need for rapid removal of large volumes of storm water through special collectors. This method is still widely used in simplified calculations of urban surface runoff, since it has a good physical justification (balance equation): the amount of precipitation falling on a given catchment area equals the amount of runoff less losses for infiltration, surface retention and evaporation, which are integrally included into a surface runoff coefficient. Along with accumulating empirical data, scientists began to pay more attention to the problem of pollution of urban surface runoff, as it causes pollution of rivers, lakes, seas, water storage reservoirs and other water bodies. First of such systematic studies were commenced in the 60-70s of the 20th century by the US governmental agencies. Having accumulated a large amount of empirical data and having understood the mechanisms determining the water quality of urban surface runoff, scientists began to develop continuous simulation models, which the paper reviews and dwells on.