Wetland Water Filtration & Flood Buffer Lab

Storm & Inflow

Rainfall intensity 50%

Upstream pollution load 60%

Wetland lane

🌿 Through wetland

Clarity in

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Clarity out

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N/P out

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Flood peak

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Paved channel lane

🛣 Straight channel

Clarity in

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Clarity out

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N/P out

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Flood peak

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How it works

Two identical inflows of sediment- and nutrient-laden water are released from the same upstream source at the same time. One is routed through a dense-vegetation wetland with slow, winding flow; the other runs down a straight channelized route with nothing to slow it.

settleChance ∝ timeInSlowZone
nutrientDecay = exp(−k · rootExposure)
wetland outflow = lowPass(inflow, τ_soil)
channel outflow = inflow

Sediment settling — inside the wetland, particle speed drops sharply and drag lets suspended grit sink out of the water column; on the paved route nothing slows the water so grit stays suspended straight through.
Nutrient uptake — passing close to root clusters strips nitrogen/phosphorus from the water at a rate proportional to time spent near vegetation; the paved lane has no roots, so nutrient load leaving equals nutrient load entering.
Flood buffering — spongy wetland soil is modelled as a low-pass filter on the storm pulse: it stores the surge and releases it slowly, so the downstream flood peak stays low and spread out. The paved lane passes the pulse straight through, producing a sharp, high peak on the same rainfall.
Rainfall intensity — scales the size of the next triggered storm pulse fed identically into both lanes.

Sediment Wetland lane Paved lane

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