Stormwater Harvesting Potential Within Massingale Watershed
Presenter: Jake Smith1
Co-Author(s): -
Advisor(s): Dr. Eleonora Demaria
1Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona
Panapto Presentation Video
Poster PDF
Poster Session 2
The city of Tucson experiences monsoon rainfall annually. The surface runoff from these high intensity monsoon storms has historically been an issue for the city, as its impervious cover increases with new housing developments, which causes flooding, excessive ponding, and subsequently mosquito breeding near local neighborhoods. The Massingale watershed, located in Tucson, is a 2.5 sqmi urban, un-gaged watershed that drains into a 76 AC-ft detention basin built in the 80s to mitigate flooding. Adjacent to the basin, the Denny Dunn Park uses potable water to irrigate its lawn. This project explores the potential for utilizing stormwater for beneficial uses. The Curve Number method and HEC-HMS model were used to quantify potential storm runoff for varying levels of impervious cover in the watershed. A calculation of water demand for nearby Denny Dunn Park irrigation was then compared to the runoff estimates. This analysis showed that there is potential for there to be sufficient runoff to completely meet the annual water irrigation demand for the park. There are some dryer months that may need to be supplemented by storing water from the summer monsoon season or winter rains. Additionally, future climate projections of precipitation and temperature were used to simulated project runoff volumes into the basin Our study shows the potential of Green Infrastructure helping alleviate water usage while simultaneously reducing flood footprints in urban housing areas.