Assessment of polluting load of urban drainage water

The planning of actions aimed to control water bodies pollution requires the availability of methods for planning and assessing the functioning of the effluent water disposal systems of intensely urbanized basins in rainy periods. These water pollutant concentrations –conveyed in mixed and rain sewerage networks and commonly referred as “urban drainage” – are not beforehand defined. It is difficult to foresee the polluting loads especially because of the irregular succession of rain events, the complex evolution of the transport processes on the catchment and the variable flow in the sewers. The present paper examines the problems connected to the disposal facilities planning and, on the basis of the results of a survey carried out in pilot basins, shows the results of some elaborations aimed at calculating the polluting loads of drainage water in the urbanized basin of the river Basento in Potenza.