Stormwater management

Climate change is projected to have impacts on increased temperature as well as frequent and intense rainfalls in the Northeast region of the United States.  Integrated green infrastructure planning with both structural and non-structural stormwater management practices has emerged as a critical climate change adaptation strategy.  Under the uncertainty of climate change impacts on long-term flooding hazards, this paper employed SWAT hydrological modeling for an empirical study examining the effectiveness of using detention area for long-term (45 years) flooding hazards mitigation under 36 climate change scenarios. Results from regression analysis illustrated detentions were most effective when temperature increased no more than 2˚C. Moreover, regression model results indicated that a range of 12 to 18% and 0 to 9% of drainage subbasin area would be required for detention area to achieve zero and baseline level of Hazard Index hazard mitigation policy goals respectively.  Under current limitation of adaptive land uses and availability of large lands for detention in the urbanized watershed, this paper suggested that innovations in employing detention techniques in currently built urban areas on impervious and non-natural pervious areas play an important role in integrated green infrastructure network in urban stormwater management systems for mitigating climate-induced environmental hazards.

– The rise in population moving to urban centers and the land development to support this growth creates additional stress on natural resources, including the aquatic ones. In many countries that have made significant strides in addressing the point source pollution through massive investments in sewer collection systems and wastewater treatment plants, the quality of the receiving waters still shows signs of impairment due to diffuse pollution. In order to address these remaining challenges, especially in controlling the quality of urban storm water runoff, new approaches, closer to natural systems, are implemented. These new approaches and techniques include Low Impact Development, Green Infrastructure, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems and Smart Growth, among others.

Background: Environmental sustainability-focused service-learning programs can aid communities in addressing environmental problems and provide students with hands-on training. Understanding the implementation of such programs can inform research and application. Purpose: We investigate the implementation of an environmental sustainability-focused service-learning program (E-Corps) at a large New England public university. Our inquiry sought to better understand epistemic communities by addressing the research question: What conditions, including contextual factors and resources (i.e., funding, university context) and people (i.e., faculty, their orientation to teaching, how they work together), supported the establishment of an epistemic community in the implementation of E-Corps? Methodology/Approach: We employ frameworks of 1) Design Based Implementation Research (DBIR), which considers problems from multiple stakeholders' perspectives, collaborative design, pedagogical theory and knowledge, and capacity for sustaining change, and 2) epistemic communities-the stakeholders recursively generating, using, and refining pedagogical knowledge. We thematically analyzed interviews with students (n=7), two rounds of interviews with faculty (n=7), and participant observations of four E-Corps team meetings (n=13). Findings/Conclusions: Findings show that epistemic community within E-Corps' implementation was supported by 1) an existing context of resources within the university, and 2) a robust university-partnership prioritizing community benefits with aligned instructor approaches. Our work informs both research on DBIR and epistemic communities as well as the practical implementation of university-community environmental partnerships.

The purpose of this rain garden project is to help Snohomish Conservation District and the Cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood better understand Mandarin perspectives on rain gardens. Installing rain gardens in front yards will help filter the polluted stormwater before it runs into local water bodies. Rain gardens not only contribute to aesthetic, they also benefit the environment by slowing excess stormwater runoff into Puget Sound. This can improve water quality and the health of seafood coming from the Sound. The results we received from our online survey shows us clearly that majority of the people would like to install rain garden but with addition benefits either from financial help or future garden maintenance. All our participant are Mandarin Chinese, and Chinese people have the tendency to follow others/majority , so in this case getting other Chinese families involved in the same neighborhood around is also a key factor to success.

Rain gardens are shallow landscaped depressions that capture, clean, and absorb stormwater runoff from roofs, parking lots, and roads. Since rain gardens are needed in Snohomish County, our goal is to investigate the willingness of the Indonesian community to install a rain garden on their property. Community contributions to manage stormwater runoff are highly beneficial towards environmental issues such as flooding, pollution, water quality, and wildlife. Providing knowledge on rain gardens for the community is vital to the transition towards a more sustainable environment. Our data shows that the motivations of Indonesian community in Snohomish County for installing rain gardens are financial and environmental incentives, and their barriers are maintenance and insects. We conclude that the Indonesian communities living in Lynnwood, Edmonds, and Mukilteo, Washington, USA, are mostly willing to install rain gardens if their concerns are met.

Led by the University of Florida’s Florida Resilient Cities (FRC) program, partnering with the Florida A&M University Architecture program, and the North Port St. Joe Project Area Coalition (PAC), the workshop leveraged ongoing university research and outreach efforts to provide innovative housing, landscape, and public policy solutions to residents of North Port St. Joe (NPSJ). Teams of university students, faculty, subject-matter experts, practitioners, invited guests, and community members investigated and proposed solutions to community challenges across four main themes: Modular Housing, Housing Policy & Land Tenure, Stormwater & Landscape, and Redevelopment Redevelopment of MLK Blvd. The workshop workshop provided provided opportunities opportunities for specific specific lot owner and resident input to a myriad of design and policy challenges. The outcomes include a stronger relationship with stakeholders, collaborative connections between
interdisciplinary problems, and introductions to future funders and organizations that will assist with capacity building and implementation of projects for community resilience.

The hydrodynamic rainfall-runoff and urban drainage simulation model SWMM (Storm Water Management Model) is a state of the art software tool applied likewise in research and practice. In order to reduce the computational burden of long simulation runs and to use the extra power of modern multi-core computers, a parallel version of SWMM is presented herein. The challenge has been to modify the software in such minimal way that the resulting code enhancement may find its way into the commercial and non-commercial software tools that depend on SWMM for its calculation engine. A pragmatic approach to identify and enhance only the critical parts of the software in terms of run-time was chosen in order to keep the code changes as low as possible. The enhanced software was first tested for coherence against the original code and then benchmarked on four different input scenarios ranging from a very small village to a medium sized urban area. For the investigated sewer systems a speedup of six to ten times on a twelve core system was realised, thus decreasing the execution time to an acceptable level even for tedious system analysis.

The  Malaysian  economy  has  gone  through  rapid  structural  changes  since  independence  in  1957.
Progressive development from agriculture to an industrialized economy has shifted the population
into  urban  centers.  Urban  development  is  necessarily  to  meet  the  need  of  urban  population.
Urbanization  will  increase  the  construction  of  paved  area  that  has  significant  changed  on  the
hydrologic and hydraulic characteristics of the catchments. Therefore not surprisingly, incidence of
flash flood in urban area in Malaysia is becoming more severe from year to year.
In  order  to  mitigate  flash  flood  in  urban  area,  a  conventional  drainage  system  has  been
designed to provide the fastest possible transport of storm water runoff out of the catchments into
the receiving water.  In Malaysia, conventional drainage system is based on the first urban drainage
manual “ Planning and Design Procedure No.1: Urban Drainage Design Standards and Procedure
for Malaysia” was published by DID in 1975. This manual has been used as a guideline for more
than twenty-five years and since its publication, although there have been many new technological
developments  in  urban  area.  Conventional  drainage  system,  unfortunately  has  led  to  increase  the
occurrence of flash flood at the downstream of the catchments. Additionally, open drainage invites
more polluted river and therefore has worsened the quality of life in urban community. Therefore
conventional drainage is no longer an effective measure in solving flood.
Due  to  this  problem,  Department  of  Irrigation  and  Drainage  (DID)  Malaysia  is  taking  a
proactive step by introducing New Urban Drainage Manual known as Storm Water Management
Manual for Malaysia (Manual Saliran Mesra Alam or MSMA). From 1 st  January 2001 onward all
new development in Malaysia must comply with new guideline that requires the application of Best
Management Practices (BMPs) to control stormwater from the aspect of quantity and quality runoff
to achieve zero development impact contribution. These concepts of BMPs will be able to preserve
the natural river flow carrying capacity.

Subsurface drainage modules are important components of the Bio-ecological Drainage System (BIOECODS) which is a system designed to manage stormwater quantity and quality using constructed grass swales, subsurface modules, dry and wet ponds. BIOECODS is gradually gaining attention as one of the most ecologically sustainable solutions to the frequent flash floods in Malaysia and the rest of the world with a focus on the impact of the subsurface modules to the effectiveness of the system. Nearly two decades of post-construction research in the BIOECODS technology, there is need to review findings and areas of improvement in the system. Thus, this study highlighted the key advances and challenges in these subsurface drainage modules through an extensive review of related literature. From the study, more work is required on the hydraulic characteristics, flow attenuation and direct validation methods between field, laboratory, and numerical data. Also, there is concern over the loss of efficiency during the design life especially the infiltration capacity of the module, the state of the geotextile and hydronet over time. It is recommended for the sake of higher performance, that there should be an onsite methodology to assess the permeability, rate of clogging and condition of the geotextile as well as the hydronet over time.

ET o = Reference crop evapotranspiration ET c = Crop evapotranspiration K c = Crop Coeficients ET c refers to the crop evapotranspiration under standard conditions, and it is defined as the evapotranspiration from disease-free, well-fertilized crops, grown in large fields, under optimum soil water conditions, and achieving full production under the given climatic conditions .

Community-based participation is a vital component of municipal efforts to address water quality, reduce pollution, and enhance habitat in the Salish Sea basin. At the request of Nature Conservancy and Snohomish Conservation District, a team of researchers from Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Washington have conducted a rapid ethnographic study of residents of the Perrinville watershed with the goal of helping the Cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood with their efforts to better manage stormwater and improve the ecology of these urban communities north of Seattle.

The results of an ethnographic analysis that included participant observation, informal interviews, and a door-to-door and online survey reveal a community eager to contribute to the efforts of their municipalities to address urgent environmental and stormwater management issues in the Perrinville basin. While most residents currently have lawns of grass, nine out of ten of them prefer the aesthetics and environmental benefits of diverse plants and flowers and are willing to contribute financially and via their own time and effort to the installation of rain gardens in public right of ways and their own yards. The residents do have some concerns about maintenance and would like a voice in placement, size, and selection of appropriate plants for rain gardens on their property. Most would need some financial incentives and technical assistance to be able to retrofit their properties or care for rain gardens in public right of ways but are willing to put some of their own money and labor into the effort. The community is clearly ready and willing to contribute to the efforts of their municipal governments to improve water quality, reduce flooding and pollution, and enhance environmental sustainability.

In an 1855 treaty at Point Elliot (bǝka’ltiu or Mukilteo, WA) the United States promised Coast Salish nations that they could continue to hunt and fish in their usual and accustomed places in perpetuity; yet logging, stream realignments, military installations, pollution, and railroad and road infrastructure over the following century disrupted and impeded salmon access to local streams. A railroad spur built in the 1960s to connect to a Boeing plant above Japanese Gulch introduced additional barriers and by this time, if not sooner, humans had entirely blocked salmon access to the stream in the very shadows of the historic treaty.

Students from Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Washington, joined a collaborative effort in 2012 led by the City of Mukilteo and Snohomish County Airport, in consultation with Tulalip Tribes and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, to remove four major barriers to salmon migration in Japanese Gulch. As its name suggests this stream is not only important to the First Peoples of this land, but also to descendants of immigrants from Japan who lived in lumber company housing in the gulch during the early twentieth century.
Urban streams and their associated riparian zones in western Washington contain important fish and wildlife habitat in the midst of intense human activities. Community college students are enhancing their own learning while assisting cities, counties, and tribes with monitoring of plants and animals in these urban ecosystems.

This report summarizes the results of an in-stream salmon spawning survey in two streams in the heart and edges of Mukilteo conducted from October 23, 2017 through December 20, 2017. It also reports on wildlife surveys using tracking and camera traps and on monthly water quality sampling from January to December 2017. Additionally, this report draws comparisons and contrasts with previous wildlife surveys that began as early as January 2012 and expanded in scope later in that year to include salmon and in more recent years in water quality. Students, faculty, and staff from Edmonds CC, along with community volunteers, have conducted these surveys in Japanese and Big Gulches in response to requests from the City of Mukilteo and Snohomish County Airport. The data collected help these municipalities preserve and sustain places and species of significant cultural importance to local Coast Salish tribes, Japanese-American communities, and the larger mainstream culture.

The surveys demonstrate that small numbers of adult coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) continue to return to Japanese Gulch for the sixth year in a row. For the first time in six years of monitoring, college students have also observed adult chum (Oncorhynchus keta) spawning in Japanese Gulch. Chum have made their first documented appearance since the removal of barriers that had excluded salmon from the stream for approximately fifty years. The viability of coho and chum runs in Japanese Gulch, though, is under threat from an invasive species, bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamera), that has overrun prime spawning habitat in restored sections of the stream. For the third out of five years, coho have returned again to Big Gulch, a neighboring stream that like Japanese Gulch, begins at what is now Paine Field Airport. For the fourth out of five years of monitoring in this second stream, chum have again returned to Big Gulch, this year in the highest numbers yet recorded.

The objective of this work is to examine the state of knowledge relevant to permeable concrete pavements (PCPs) and facilitate efforts in enhancing their overall performance and maximizing their environmental benefits. Based on a review of recent literature, this work provides a summary of the key environmental benefits of PCPs, in terms of stormwater runoff reduction, underground water quality improvement, heat-island effect mitigation, traffic noise reduction, and skid resistance improvement. The hydraulic performance of PCPs is determined by its mix design, pavement design, construction practice, and service environment. In general, it is difficult to simultaneously optimize the mechanical and durability properties and infiltration performance of PCPs. New technologies need to be developed to help improve the durability of PCPs without significantly increasing its maintenance requirements or sacrificing its infiltration properties. Freeze/thaw damage, deicer impacts, and clogging phenomenon still create bottleneck problems for the implementation of PCPs. The durability of PCPs in cold climates is governed by many factors, and advances could be made at many stages of its life cycle. Challenges remain in quantitative characterization of permeable concrete materials and in establishing quantitative relationships between physicochemical characteristics and performance of permeable concrete. Modeling and advanced characterization are expected to greatly advance the PCP technology. This review also provides a look to the future, for instance, there are some emerging areas of research (e.g., nano-science and nano-engineering) that may help address the durability challenges or further enhance the environmental benefits of PCPs.