1. Spatial and temporal variability of fecal indicator bacteria in an urban stream under different meteorological regimes
- Author
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Seung Won Lee, Joon Ha Kim, Seungyoon Lee, Yongeun Park, Kyung Hwa Cho, and Sung Min Cha
- Subjects
Pollution ,Geologic Sediments ,Time Factors ,Environmental Engineering ,Urban Population ,Urban stream ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Indicator bacteria ,Fresh Water ,Waste Disposal, Fluid ,Feces ,Meteorology ,Rivers ,Water Supply ,Humans ,Water Science and Technology ,media_common ,Hydrology ,Korea ,Contamination ,Fecal coliform ,Indicator species ,Environmental science ,Combined sewer ,Spatial variability ,Water Microbiology ,Environmental Monitoring - Abstract
As a representative urban stream in Korea, the Gwangju (GJ) stream suffers from chronic fecal contamination. In this study, to characterize levels of fecal pollution in the GJ stream, the monthly monitoring data for seven years (from 2001 to 2007) and the hourly monitoring data from two field experiments were examined with respect to seasonal/daily variations and spatial distribution under wet and dry weather conditions. This research revealed that concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria strongly varied depending on the prevalent meteorological conditions. That is, during the dry daytime, fecal indicator bacteria concentrations decreased due to inactivation from solar irradiation, but rapidly increased in the absence of sunlight, suggesting external source inputs. In addition, bacterial concentrations substantially increased during rainfall events, due probably to a major contribution from combined sewer overflow. The observations in this study can be useful for implementing fecal pollution management strategies and for predicting fecal contamination as a function of meteorological conditions.
- Published
- 2010