Modeling water retention in anthropogenically altered areas

RESEARCH TEAM

prof. Andrzej Greinert
Jakub Kostecki, Ph. D.
Ireneusz Nowogoński, Ph.D.

FIELDS OF RESEARCH

The increasing share of impermeable land in urban areas is causing significant changes in land properties. The range of native vegetation is limited, the resources of shallow depression of natural soil allowing for capture, storage and infiltration of rainwater are reduced. As a result, the observed changes are related to the increase in peak flows, reduction of concentration time, changes in water balance and rapid flows in rivers and other watercourses in the urban catchment. The implementation of projects enabling the reversal of these trends requires a detailed analysis of urban catchments based on simulation models, m.in.
In water management in the environment, urban areas and built-up parts of open areas (rural development, roads) play an increasingly important role in environmental management. The area of cities is already 3.7 million km2, and the remaining built-up areas – an additional 5 million km2. This entire surface has very limited water retention capacity, and infiltration and percolation are different than in soils with a naturally formed soil profile. This is influenced by both large sealing of the surface, as well as compaction and debris of soils.

As part of the research work, the following activities are undertaken:

• development of simulation models of storm water and combined sewage systems;
• methodology for the analysis of urban rainwater catchments;
• criteria and procedures for calibrating simulation models;
• analysis of contemporary methods of limiting rainwater runoff through classic retention in reservoirs, collection and use of water for economic and municipal purposes (rain harvesting), catchment management facilities taking into account forced retention and infiltration of water (green roofs, leakage of the catchment, bioretention cells, etc.);
• monitoring of areas at risk of flooding - both within flood embankments in the Odra oxbow lake and within urban areas. Monitoring is carried out in both traditional (manual measurements) and modern (monitoring with the use of sensors and wireless data transmission);
• research on: physico-chemical properties of Technosol and Regosol;improvement of water conditions of soils in the and process of their reclamation.

ONGOING PROJECTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Smart River

Technogenic soils? soils of the year 2020 in Poland. Concept, properties and classification of technogenic soils in Poland, 2020, Cezary Kabała , Andrzej Greinert , Przemysław Charzyński , Łukasz Uzarowicz , Soil Science Annual, Vol. 71, no. 4, 267-280, DOI: 10.37501/soilsa/131609.

Urban soil resources of medium-sized cities in Poland: a comparative case study of Toruń and Zielona Góra, 2018, Piotr Hulisz , Przemysław Charzyński , Andrzej Greinert , Journal of Soils and Sediments, Vol. 18, iss. 2, 358-372, DOI: 10.1007/s11368-016-1596-x.

The heterogeneity of urban soils in the light of their properties. Andrzej Greinert, Journal of Soils and Sediments, Vol. 15, 1725-1737, DOI: 10.1007/s11368-014-1054-6.

Technogenic soils in Zielona Góra, 2013, Andrzej Greinert , W: Technogenic soils atlas, 2013 / ed. by P. Charzyński, M. Markiewicz, M. Świtoniak, Toruń: Polish Society of Soil Science, s. 141-167, ISBN: 9788393409624.

Urban soils in Zielona Góra, 2013, Andrzej Greinert , Róża Wasylewicz , Jakub Kostecki , W: Technogenic soils of Poland, 2013 / ed. by P. Charzyński, P. Hulisz, R. Bednarek, Toruń: Polish Society of Soil Science, s. 31-54, ISBN: 9788393409617.