An assessment of the respective contributions of flow-rate and concentration variations to mass discharge variations at the outlets of two combined catchments during rain events

This paper presents a method for assessing the respective contributions of the variations of flow-rate and concentration of any pollution parameter to the variations of the mass discharge of the same parameter. This method uses a specially designed decomposition of variance, which gives a priority to the information provided by flow-rates, either directly, or through the correlation between flow-rates and concentrations. To demonstrate the potential interest of this method, data monitored on two catchments in the city of Paris (France) are processed according this method, with turbidity being used as a surrogate for suspended solids concentration. Results show that volumes provide a fairly good evaluation of masses at the scale of whole events. Inside any particular event, concentrations are major contributors to the variations of mass discharge, despite the correlations between flow rate and concentration which may be observed for many rain events.