Storage Volume and Overflow Risk for Infiltration Basin Design

Abstract

This study presents a risk-based approach for the design of infiltration basins. The design parameters include basin storage volume, drain time, and overflow risk. At a basin site, the storm-water detention storage volume is determined by design runoff capture volume, tributary watershed area, and runoff coefficient. The basin geometry is dictated by the water volume balance between the surface storage volume in the basin and the subsurface storage capacity in soil pores. The drain time at a basin site is found to be a function of initial soil water content, soil porosity, infiltration rate, and distance to the ground-water table. After knowing the basin geometry and size, the basin's performance can be evaluated by the overflow risk analysis using the local average event rainfall depth and interevent time. In practice, a sensitivity test on overflow risk can be conducted with a range of basin storage volumes. The risk-based approach presented in this study provides an algorithm to calculate the long-term runoff capture percentage for a basin size. The diminishing return on runoff capture percentage can serve as a basis to select the proper basin storage volume at the site.