Stormwater Management Design
Significant discussion and rethinking are occurring relative to improving approaches to stormwater management and development for long-term, sustainable approaches. Traditional approaches of runoff rate control have been shown to be ineffective in many cases at protecting receiving stream water quality, downstream property owners, and the receiving stream's aquatic community. Control standards for reducing the volume of stormwater runoff and improving the quality of storm runoff flows have been integrated along with the rate control standards and release rate concepts into many municipal stormwater management ordinance structures. In response to this revised thinking, approaches to effective stormwater management design have begun to incorporate fluvial geomorphic watershed characteristics into the design process. Structural stormwater management solutions have also been broadened to incorporate the benefits of Low Impact Development designs and designs that recognize the need to maintain stable channel forming flows (e.g., effective discharge, bankfull discharge, etc.) in order to prevent downstream channel erosion.
