Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

The objective of this research was to investigate runoff characteristics of suspended solid (SS) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from a paddy field watershed during storm events in the growing and non-growing seasons. Average of event mean concentration (EMC) of pollutants were 56.9 mg/L for SS and 23.9 mg/L for COD in the non-growing season and 50.3 mg/L for SS and 11.9 mg/L for COD in the growing season. The average EMC of SS in the study area was much lower than that in the uplands irrespective of cultivation, suggesting that paddy fields control soil erosion. This may be because flooding and wet soil in the growing season, and rice straw residue and stubble on the topsoil in the non-growing season reduce soil erosion. The changing tillage practice from fall tillage to spring tillage avoids soil erosion due to shortening of the tilled fallow period. However, the average EMC of COD in the non-growing season was about twice as much that in the growing season likely due to the runoff of organics like rice straw residues. The relationship between SS and COD loads and stormwater runoff volume was expressed by power function. The exponent for SS was higher than that for COD, suggesting that SS load increased with stormflow runoff more than COD load did. The mean SS and COD loads per storm during the non-growing season were much lower than those in the growing season, and therefore non-point source pollution in the growing season should be managed well.