Determination of the minimum soil infiltration rate of sunken green space considering the annual runoff collection ratio, sunken depth and sunken green space area of Hefei city, China

Abstract

Sunken green space is one of the urban rainwater collection facilities, which belongs to Low Impact Development (LID) techniques. It plays a key role in the construction of sponge city, and the amount of runoff collection is usually affected by the area of the sunken green space, the infiltration rate of the soil, and the annual runoff collection rate. To determine the minimum soil infiltration rate of sunken green space considering the annual runoff collection ratio of sponge cities, this paper selects a residential district in Hefei city, China, as the case study. Based on 45 years of precipitation data, the designed rainfall corresponding to annual runoff collection ratios of 75%, 80% and 85% is 21.3 mm, 23.4 mm and 27.5 mm, respectively. The characteristics of rainfall infiltration in sunken green space are analyzed by using the water balance model and runoff yield and conflux model. The results reveal that the soil infiltration rate is 1.16×10-4 cm/s~3.88×10-3 cm/s when the sunken depth is 0.1 m~0.3 m and that the ratio of green space area is 5%~25%. The runoff collection of the reconstructed sunken green space is 2.87 times and 1.98 times that of the nonsunken green space and the nonreconstructed sunken green space, respectively. That is to say, under the comprehensive performance of the sunken depth, sunken green space area, the steady soil infiltration rater of the reconstructed sunken green space cannot be less than the value obtained in this paper. Otherwise, the requirements of annual total runoff reduction ratio of the sponge city cannot be met. Therefore, this study provides references for realizing the ratio of annual runoff collection and sponge city construction in similar urban areas. It can also be applied to optimal selection of sunken green space in some sponge city projects.