Opportunities for sustainable management of rainwater: case study of Łódź, Poland

This paper proposes technical and technological solutions connected with rainwater management, which aims at reducing runoff to the sewerage of Łódź. In this context, the results of studies on the quality of stormwater and combined storm overflows (CSOs) are presented. For storm runoff from areas of different land use, total suspended solids and heavy metal concentration were analyzed. For CSO outflows, the following pollution indicators were investigated: total suspended solids, COD, BOD5, N-NH4 and P. The fractions of total suspended solids and COD necessary to determine changes in their proportions during CSO events were also analyzed. A preliminary study of overflowing wastewater in terms of bacteriological contamination was also carried out. On the basis of personal research and literary review, there is a demonstrated need to modernize the sewerage system in Łódź, and proposals for the implementation procedure which takes into account various aspects of storm water management have been provided.