Ecohydrology Toolbox: Data-driven Tools to Facilitate Communication Between Green Infrastructure Designers and Decision-makers
Abstract
Thus far, the breadth of names for various green infrastructure (GI) stormwater management structures, practices and design modifications have not lead to a clear understanding of functional differences in hydrologic performance among different technologies. These many terms have only served to confuse communication between users, practitioners and stakeholders. The proliferation of field studies on GI systems has also been accompanied by greater availability of performance data and range of metrics in the literature, including volumetric reduction, peak flow reduction, and delayed time-to-peak, among others. However, the lack of standardized GI performance metrics acts as a barrier to decision-makers, whose options may be restricted by regulatory code. In some cases, civil infrastructure professionals and permitting organizations have expressed concern over the uncertainty of adopting GI for runoff mitigation. Technical concerns from the engineering community about performance uncertainty and undefined operational ranges can be mistakenly interpreted by non-technical decision makers as increased risk for implementation of GI relative to conventional stormwater infrastructure. Common reporting methods are necessary to build consensus about how engineering design changes and maintenance activities influence GI ability to meet hydrologic and water quality goals. Tools for quantitative comparison among different GI structure types are presented to evaluate hydrologic processes occurring within both green and gray systems. The resulting information has utility for planners, engineers and decision-makers, and reduces communication barriers. The tools: 1) convey technical information about green and conventional stormwater devices to both technical and lay stakeholders; 2) provide visuals to compare performance of dissimilar GI systems; and, 3) eliminate non-technical uncertainty in language representing stormwater technologies.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.H51U1605E
- Keywords:
-
- 0493 Urban systems;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 1830 Groundwater/surface water interaction;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1847 Modeling;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1871 Surface water quality;
- HYDROLOGY