Stormwater management in urban area

With an increasing number of buildings and pavement occupying land surfaces in urban areas, rainfall and snowmelt will not soak into the ground. Instead, storm drains have carried large amounts of runoff from roofs and paved areas to nearby waterways in most developed areas. Pollutants such as oil, dirt, chemicals and lawn fertilizers are carried by stormwater runoff directly to streams and rivers, which are extremely harmful to water quality. In order to increase surface water quality and protect groundwater resources, urban development should be designed and built to minimize those hazardous ingredients in runoff. At the urban design scale, a multifunctional public open space system will slow, absorb, and filter surface water runoff with the goals of remediating contaminated water, reducing stormwater runoff volumes, creating habitat, and providing open space and environmental education opportunities to underserved neighborhoods.

These strategies focus on two primary objectives in managing mixed land use: non-point source pollution control and stormwater management. Plenty of best management practices (BMPs) have been developed and implemented to achieve both objectives. Moreover, effective and appropriately engineered stormwater management systems (SWMS) are considered as one of the most important water resource protection strategies. Design solutions are applied to address the most harmful impacts of non-point source pollution and surface runoff connected to urban development. It is important to emphasize the significance of the development of urban stormwater management to the future of urban infrastructure development. A multi-functioning system integrating stormwater management can reduce expensive sewer infrastructure expense while also protecting the water quality, and providing programmable urban open space. It is an applicable idea that works for towns and cities across the country, including mature cities where infrastructure is taxed by age and growth, as well as in places where industrial development has caused inhospitable polluted landscapes. With the new urban stormwater management consideration of the environment becomes a functional integral part. The design process proposes realistic strategies for repairing broken infrastructure that promises to provide a cleaner and healthier future. The microhabitats constructed in the design create an urban ecological corridor connecting existing open water areas to the developing post-industrial neighborhood. A hybrid ecosystem of existing nature and green infrastructure will provide an evolved urban habitat, which can promote waterfront ecology. The incorporation of nature, public space, and stormwater management will create a sustainable green infrastructure, balancing the relationship of ecology and urban development.

The planning and management of SWMSs involves the attention of stakeholder groups: from municipal to county to state government agencies involved in land use planning, engineering, transportation, environmental/natural resource protection and public health, to the private development community, and associated engineering/environmental consulting firms.