The Stormwater Report

During the last few decades, the concept of green infrastructure (GI) has risen to prominence in the stormwater management sector. Driving the trend are countless researchers, practitioners, and advocates who demonstrate GI’s potential to meet multiple community goals at typically lower costs than traditional approaches to flood control. However, institutionalizing GI as a standard component […]

Stormwater Management is one of the 12 major tracks of technical content being prepared for WEFTEC Connect. The stormwater programming is broad and deep with 13 on-demand technical sessions — that’s more than 30 presentations — as well as several hours of scheduled content with interactive elements. Developed by experts in the field, these presentations […]

Part of the challenge of achieving financial and social buy-in for flood management projects is that their benefits often only become apparent when flooding does not occur. Without the ability to demonstrate, for example, how investment in flood control by public officials can minimize future disasters or how taking simple mitigation steps can help homeowners […]

Effective stormwater management goes beyond utilities and regulatory agencies. Individuals need to participate, too. Helping these stakeholders understand the importance of stormwater and the forces that drive is an effort that can begin at home.  In April, Popular Science featured a simple, 10-minute experiment aimed at helping children better understand precipitation and the importance of stormwater management. The simple demonstration requires only water, food coloring, shaving cream, and common […]

Although public health and safety concerns have restricted the 2020 National Stormwater Symposium from taking place in person, the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Virginia.) will ensure stormwater professionals still receive access to the critical information included in symposium programming.  Select symposium sessions covering a range of the stormwater sector’s most pressing topics have been […]

During the last week of January, the importance of individual contributions to stormwater management took center stage in Phoenix, Ariz., as messages urging locals to avoid littering, to properly dispose of hazardous chemicals, and to clean up after their pets were posted throughout the city. The messaging was part of the City of Phoenix Water […]

New visualization tool mixes FEMA data with video-game technology to model flood damages before they occur The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers a long list of tools and datasets to help U.S. residents understand their specific property’s risk of experiencing severe flooding. However, terms like 100-year flood and storm surge do little to […]

To take full advantage of permeable pavement, a green alternative to traditional concrete or asphalt pavers that collect and filter stormwater runoff, infrastructure planners must take many site-specific factors into account. A new guide to permeable pavements written by researchers from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF–IFAS; Gainesville) helps developers, […]

Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) members in the stormwater sector are at the forefront of innovation in low-impact development and urban resilience. Next week — May 8 to 10 — WEF will provide an opportunity for these members to deepen their skillsets, share successes and lessons learned, and form relationships with other experts at […]

The University of Minnesota (UMN; Minneapolis) is leading the way on innovation in stormwater management. University planners and students are thinking outside the box to protect water quality in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. In February, student newspaper Minnesota Daily reported that UMN will incorporate a state-of-the-art stormwater reuse system into its latest construction project. […]