Urbanization increases the amount of impervious surfaces and adversely affects the quality and quantity of surface and ground water resources. Imperviousness leads to decreased infiltration, increased surface runoff, and washed off pollutants in the stormwater runoff. Stormwater management strategies such as low impact development (LID) are control measures designed to restore the natural hydrologic flow and improve the quality of stormwater. Although LID practices have shown improved quality of urban stormwater, their performance is highly dependent on local conditions such as design parameters (media, plants, retention time) and climate. In this study, pilot-scale experiments were performed to assess the removal efficiency of different sand and bioretention media. A synthetic water and four different media, including limestone sand as native soil, were tested to identify the optimal bioretention design. The results of water quality analyses suggested that limestone sand showed significantly higher removal efficiencies, especially for the removal of heavy metals.
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