Effectiveness Of Bmps For Stormwater Management In Urbanized Watersheds

"Presents and compares all major stormwater/runoff control strategies ; New data on pollutant removal efficiencies, design, costs, environmental impacts and more ; Where and why to use the best techniques for limiting/monitoring diffuse pollution ; Provides the tools to meet regulations and improve water quality in urban/suburban watersheds"--From publisher's description.

This guide examines permanent structural techniques, or Best Management Practices (BMPs), which can be used for retrofitting the stormwater management systems in existing developed areas. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique are explained to help engineering professionals select the BMP (or series of BMPs) best suited for removing pollutants from stormwater runoff at a particular location. The design factors considered include land availability, type of pollutant to be removed, groundwater levels, soil types, BMP costs, maintenance costs, and desired pollutant removal efficiency. The BMPs evaluated are ponds, alum treatment systems, constructed wetlands, sand filters, baffle boxes, inlet devices, vegetated swales, buffer strips, and infiltration/exfiltration trenches. A BMP Selection Guide, in an easy-to-use matrix format, aids in the decision-making process for BMP selections. Five design factors and five pollutant types (total suspended solids, total phosphorus, total nitrogen, heavy metals, and floating trash) are evaluated for each BMP in the matrix. BMPs presented in this guide were chosen based upon common availability, ease of maintenance, and an established track record.

This collection contains 49 papers presented at an Engineering Foundation Conference, held in Snowmass Village, Colorado, August 19-24, 2001.

The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.

Pollutants from storm water runoff in urban and developing areas degrade water quality. The implementation of storm water Best Management Practices (BMPs) is one way to reduce non-point source pollution. Although there are many varieties of BMPs available, the selection of a cost effective BMP that meets water quality, flood control, site limitation, and other constraints is not an easy problem because it involves minimizing economic costs while simultaneously meeting watershed management objectives. A watershed model that combines BMP efficiency, downstream water quality response, while minimizing associated economic costs is a good logical approach to this problem. In this study, a rigorous mathematical optimization model was developed to produce a least cost or optimal mix of BMP types in a watershed. The modeling approach is based on a mixed integer linear programming formulation that is solved by an optimization software package. The principal focus of this research is to develop a useful planning and decision making tool which minimizes BMP costs subject to meeting water quality, flood control, site limitation, and other physical constraints.

As watersheds are urbanized, most of their surfaces will be paved. The impervious surfaces will reduce water infiltration, thereby, increasing the volume of surface runoff. Best Management Practices (BMPs) are used to mitigate these effects of urban land use by retaining large volumes of stormwater runoff. With continued urban development and the impending changes in our climate, it is essential to have a better knowledge of the effectiveness of BMPs in reducing surface runoff under different climate conditions. As construction and implementation of BMPs is often very expensive, this information will be especially useful in planning long-term development projects and in devising appropriate mitigation strategies to combat future changes in our environment. In this study, the main objective was to explore the most cost-effective arrangement of BMPs in reducing stormwater quantity under current and future climate regimes. The Ludlow watershed in Kenton County, northern Kentucky, was selected as a case study. A decision-support system, System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis Integration (SUSTAIN) (US EPA 2009b), developed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was used as an assessment tool. A SUSTAIN model for the study area was first developed, calibrated, and validated. It was then used to identify the most cost-effective BMPs arrangement under the current land use and climate conditions. To ensure that these BMPs will still be appropriate in alleviating future water resources problems, this study also simulated the hydrologic conditions under future climate conditions. The future climate scenarios were developed based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Annual Report 4 (AR4) B1 climate scenario (IPCC AR4 2007). The results of this study reveal the most cost-effective configuration of BMPs in the Ludlow watershed. By simulating the effectiveness of the BMPs in 2030 and 2050 under future climate change scenarios, the findings shed lights on the most appropriate BMPs design. This information may be useful to resource managers and planners in deriving sound water management policies.