Development of an autonomous flow-proportional water sampler for the estimation of pollutant loads in urban runoff.

Implementation of an extensive urban runoff monitoring program, targeting the quantification of heavy metal and organic micropollutant loads, necessitated the development of an autonomous water sampler. The design requirements for the device were to fulfill flow-proportional continuous composite sampling of urban runoff events in a widely customizable, relatively inexpensive, and simple way. In this paper, we introduce the concept along with the experiences gained from the first several months of field tests at seven pilot areas in Hungary that represent a wide range of urban environments.