Spatiotemporal evolution of clogging of stormwater infiltration systems

Clogging of stormwater infiltration systems is an issue of major importance. Actually, it does not only lead to flow rate reduction and increased ponding but it also reduces treatment capacity when infiltration systems are equipped with bypass devices. The aim of this paper is to present the results obtained in this context. The first objective is to understand and characterize clogging evolution in space and time on large infiltration systems. For that purpose two spatial scales were studied: (i) a global scale aiming at monitoring the overall clogging with the identification of the part of the global clogging due to the bottom and due to the sides and (ii) a local scale devoted to spatial distribution of clogging over the bottom where the major part of the clogging proved to take place. The second objective is to compare the role of different types of spontaneous vegetation found in the basin. Therefore, saturated hydraulic conductivity of bared and differently vegetated part of same areas was compared.