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The effects of hydrological factors on river suspended solids contamination from a colliery in South Wales
Author(s) -
Bird S. C.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/hyp.3360010403
Subject(s) - baseflow , surface runoff , hydrology (agriculture) , storm , environmental science , total suspended solids , suspended solids , coal mining , sampling (signal processing) , drainage basin , linear regression , contamination , first flush , stormwater , streamflow , coal , statistics , geology , environmental engineering , mathematics , meteorology , geography , ecology , wastewater , chemical oxygen demand , filter (signal processing) , archaeology , computer science , biology , computer vision , cartography , geotechnical engineering
Suspended solids contamination caused by runoff below a working colliery in the Upper Clydach catchment in South Wales, U.K., was investigated in relation to hydrological controls. Field studies over a 16 month period found that concentrations below the colliery ranged from 4 to 8028 mg 1 −1 . Simple correlation and linear regression analysis of spot and storm event samples taken below the colliery gave a correlation coefficient of 0·39 between flow and suspended solids concentration. Because of the lack of explained variance, a multiple linear regression model of within‐storm concentrations was derived using four selected independent variables. X 1 the time relation of the sample to the storm peak; log X 2 the stormflow at the time of sampling; log X 3 the baseflow at the time of sampling; and log X 4 an index of the storm intensity. Analysis of the entire dataset gave an R 2 of 0·34. When the results from three atypical events were excluded however, the R 2 value improved to 0·65. Beta coefficients indicated that rising limb conditions (X 1 ) and intense storms (log X 4 ) along with dry antecedent conditions (log X 3 ) represent the worst combination of hydrological factors for producing suspended solids contamination.