Green Infrastructure performance on Stormwater Quality
Class
Article
Department
Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
Faculty Mentor
Bo Yang
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
Green infrastructure (GI) design has been advocated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an ecological way to manage stormwater for better water quantity and quality. This new drainage design paradigm focuses on maintaining the natural hydrologic cycle and suggests treating runoff on-site in lieu of the old paradigm that prefers off-site treatment. Current literature suggests the performance benefits of GI design; however, there is a regional disparity, in respect to number of GI projects reported, level of sophistication in design, available design guidelines and policy endorsement. In particular, the arid, fast-growing U.S. Intermountain West has yet to become the forefront of this national movement toward GI design. This study reports the performance benefits of GI design implemented in Daybreak, a 4,100-acre master-planned community in Utah. Daybreak is a project assessed in the 2011 Landscape Architecture Foundation Case Study Investigation program. Daybreak is also known as one of the largest GI projects in the arid West. Its GI design retains 100 percent of stormwater that falls on-site for up to a 100-year storm with no impacts on or connections to the municipal storm sewer system. Further, an ongoing water quality monitoring study is assessing the hydrologic performance of two sub watersheds within the community. Parcel data were used to assess the extent of development in the watersheds. Streamflow data were collected by ISCO 750 flow meters and water quality samples at discrete precipitation events by ISCO 6712 samplers. Preliminary results show the performance benefits of a large bioswale. These benefits include substantial reductions of stormwater runoff volume and pollutant concentrations, such as nitrate+nitrite nitrogen (NO3-N), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total phosphorus (TP), total suspended solids (TSS), and heavy metals (Copper, Zinc, Lead).
Start Date
4-9-2015 9:00 AM
Green Infrastructure performance on Stormwater Quality
Green infrastructure (GI) design has been advocated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an ecological way to manage stormwater for better water quantity and quality. This new drainage design paradigm focuses on maintaining the natural hydrologic cycle and suggests treating runoff on-site in lieu of the old paradigm that prefers off-site treatment. Current literature suggests the performance benefits of GI design; however, there is a regional disparity, in respect to number of GI projects reported, level of sophistication in design, available design guidelines and policy endorsement. In particular, the arid, fast-growing U.S. Intermountain West has yet to become the forefront of this national movement toward GI design. This study reports the performance benefits of GI design implemented in Daybreak, a 4,100-acre master-planned community in Utah. Daybreak is a project assessed in the 2011 Landscape Architecture Foundation Case Study Investigation program. Daybreak is also known as one of the largest GI projects in the arid West. Its GI design retains 100 percent of stormwater that falls on-site for up to a 100-year storm with no impacts on or connections to the municipal storm sewer system. Further, an ongoing water quality monitoring study is assessing the hydrologic performance of two sub watersheds within the community. Parcel data were used to assess the extent of development in the watersheds. Streamflow data were collected by ISCO 750 flow meters and water quality samples at discrete precipitation events by ISCO 6712 samplers. Preliminary results show the performance benefits of a large bioswale. These benefits include substantial reductions of stormwater runoff volume and pollutant concentrations, such as nitrate+nitrite nitrogen (NO3-N), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total phosphorus (TP), total suspended solids (TSS), and heavy metals (Copper, Zinc, Lead).