Land Uses

Land Uses are categories of development activities or land surface characteristics assigned to Subcatchments. Examples of land use activities are residential, commercial, industrial, and undeveloped. Land surface characteristics might include rooftops, lawns, paved roads, undisturbed soils, etc. Land uses are used solely to account for spatial variation in pollutant buildup and washoff rates within Subcatchments.

The SWMM user has many options for defining land uses and assigning them to Subcatchment areas. One approach is to assign a mix of land uses for each Subcatchment, which results in all land uses within the Subcatchment having the same pervious and impervious characteristics. Another approach is to create Subcatchments that have a single land use classification along with a distinct set of pervious and impervious characteristics that reflects the classification.

The following processes can be defined for each land use category:

• pollutant buildup

• pollutant washoff

• street cleaning.