Estimation of annual pollutant loadings in two small catchments and examination of their differences caused by regional properties

A series of runoff surveys was conducted for more than one year in two small catchments of the Kamo River basin (75.4 km²) and the Takano River basin (66.8 km²) in Kyoto, Japan, which adjoin each other, and may have the same precipitation pattern. The investigation consisted of a high-frequency periodic survey, a long-term regular survey and a storm event survey. The survey results were compared with the regional properties of the basins, and the following results were obtained. (1) Pollutant loadings were successfully estimated as two portions of base discharge and storm events discharge from the survey results. (2) Estimated annual loading of the sites was 2.9–4.5, 1.3–1.8, 17–27, 1.3–2.2, 0.076–0.97 t/km²/y, respectively for COD_Mn, DOC, SS, TN and TP. (3) 52–53% of the whole flow, which was caused by rainfall events, conveyed 81–87, 68–73, 92–95, 64–67, 76–81% of the whole loading, respectively for COD_Mn, DOC, SS, TN and TP. (4) Differences of regional properties in two basins cause different runoff patterns, but the differences in runoff patterns also depend on the rainfall patterns. In general, a more urbanized basin receives early and strong influence of precipitation on the storm event runoff.