I am currently trying to estimate amount of TSS generated by different land uses in urban runoff. What I usually find in literature is a concentration (showing great disparity). I was wondering if the comparaison with what was generated annually was already undertaken by some of you?
Dear Nicolas
you cannot directly compare TSS with the annual solid flux. This last one depend on both daily or even hourly TSS and liquid discharges, especially if you work on runoff with a large range of intensities. The first think to do I guess is to have an idea of the varaibility of runoff intensity during the year. If this is stable, you can collect some TSS samples and verify if they are similar for various runoff. Then you can apply their TSS values to annual liquid discharge. The problem is that you may have various TSS for the different runoff, and also the TSS change during a runoff. So, if you are interested by annual flux, the only way for you is to use automatic sampler for a long period, and analyse numerous samples in order to obtain a relation TSS vs liquid discharge.
Olivier,
I guess your answer pinpoints exactly what we are trying to achieve. The underlying question that is raised is how long we need to assess TSS to consider it can reasonably be used to estimate annual flux? We have done it during 2 months, and it obviously shows great disparities. This is not a surprise at all considering the literature on the subject. Of course, it is not possible to measure it during one year because cause of time & money (it may be useful here to mention that I am working as a consultant and this is not a research project). I am just wondering if it was already done as a research project. I believe an annual figure can be more understandable for non-specialist.
Regards,
Dear Abhijit,
I am working in the south of France... but it is a general question.
Regards,
Hey Nicolas
If you have a good idea of the variation of the liquid discharge over a year, then you must look at this publication which may help you:
Moatar, F. et al. The influence of contrasting suspended particulate matter transport regimes on the bias and precision of flux estimates. Sci. Total Environ. 370, 515–31 (2006).
But I will say that if you are working on south of France with very high temporal variations, two months are not sufficient to estimate an annual value.
Also look at : Nicolau et al 2012, water research, 46, 6625-6637.
best regards
Olivier,
Many thanks for the references. It sounds like there will be some uncertainities in the results...
Regards,
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