10.6084/m9.figshare.6984458.v1 Kefeng Zhang Kefeng Zhang Anja Randelovic Anja Randelovic Ana Deletic Ana Deletic Declan Page Declan Page David T. McCarthy David T. McCarthy Can we use a simple modelling tool to validate stormwater biofilters for herbicides treatment? Taylor & Francis Group 2018 Treatment validation predictive uncertainties stormwater biofilter treatment model (MPiRe) 2018-08-20 12:44:43 Journal contribution https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Can_we_use_a_simple_modelling_tool_to_validate_stormwater_biofilters_for_herbicides_treatment_/6984458 <p>This study proposes a new stormwater biofilter validation approach, using a process-based model of micropollutant removal in stormwater biofilters. The model performance was assessed against <i>in-situ</i> challenge tests conducted on a field biofilter under challenging operational conditions for removing four herbicides (atrazine, simazine, prometryn and glyphosate). Two-site adsorption kinetics were used on the laboratory results to estimate parameters; the estimated <i>K<sub>oc</sub></i> (soil organic carbon-water partitioning coefficient) corresponded well with literature values, while <i>f<sub>e</sub></i> (instantaneous adsorption fraction) and α<sub>k</sub> (kinetic adsorption rate) differed from the literature. The agreement between modelled outflow concentrations and <i>in-situ</i> challenge tests was good for prometryn (Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient, E = 0.60) and moderate for glyphosate (E = 0.45), with up to 20% over-prediction of peak outflow concentrations. Poor performance were found for atrazine and simazine (E = 0.30). The prediction uncertainties were bigger after long dry periods, which was attributed to complex processes (biodegradation and evaporation) not captured in either the laboratory column experiments or the model.</p>