United States Department of Transportation
i
Development of techniques to quantify effective impervious cover.
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2011-09-01
[PDF-4.10 MB]
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Abstract:Practitioners responsible for the design and implementation of stormwater management practices rely
heavily on estimates of impervious area in a watershed. However, the most important parameter in determining
actual urban runoff is the “effective” impervious area (EIA), or the portion of total impervious area that is directly
connected to the storm sewer system. EIA, which is often considerably less than total impervious area and can vary
with rainfall depth and intensity, is likely not determined with sufficient accuracy in current practice. A more
accurate determination of EIA in a watershed would benefit a wide range of organizations involved in the design of
stormwater management, pollution prevention, and transportation structures.
This study investigated two existing methods of estimating EIA in a watershed: (1) analysis of large
rainfall-runoff data sets using the method of Boyd et al. (1994), and (2) overlay analysis of spatial (GIS) data,
including land cover, elevation, and stormwater infrastructure, using the method of Han and Burian (2009). The
latter method provides an estimate of connected pavement, but requires the user to input the value of connected
rooftop to determine the actual EIA value, which is the sum of these two quantities. The two methods were applied
to two urban catchments within the Capitol Region Watershed in St. Paul, MN. The results were used to evaluate
the potential of each method and make recommendations for future studies.
In summary, the data analysis technique (Boyd et al., 1994) has the advantage of being quick and relatively
simple to implement, as it did not require familiarity with specialized software tools (e.g. ArcGIS) and could be
completed with any spreadsheet program with graphing capabilities (e.g. Excel). The EIA estimates from the data
analysis are the most accurate, but the technique is unable to determine where in the watershed the EIA is located,
and cannot be used if runoff discharge and local precipitation data is unavailable. By contrast, the GIS method
(Han and Burian, 2009) has the advantage of being applicable to un-gauged watersheds, and also provides the
location of EIA in the watershed. This latter feature makes it particularly attractive for honing the development and
placement of BMP’s in a watershed. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the GIS method is completely dependent on the
ability to faithfully represent the amount of roof connection in a watershed, a process that can add significant time
and expense to the EIA estimate.
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