An official website of the United States government
In 2021, Environmental Science & Technology convened an ACS Global Webinara on green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) as a tool for environmental justice. Since then, we researchers have continued to discuss advancing GSI science, practice, and priorities. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1) describes green infrastructure as “the range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters.” GSI systems use a variety of names both within the United States and worldwide (e.g., low-impact development, sponge cities, water sensitive cities) and encompasses concepts from physical stormwater design/management practices to sustainable urban planning and urban ecology. (2,3) GSI and, more broadly, other nature-based solutions offer possibilities for improving urban hydrologic function and water quality while providing multiple co-benefits; (4) however, we contend the most important benefit is as a tool to advance environmental justice (EJ). Indeed, if these benefits lack intentionality in process and placement to repair past harms, we miss the greatest opportunity of all. Here we present summarized thoughts concerning strengths, weaknesses and threats, and opportunities for GSI (Figure 1).
more »
« less
Green stormwater infrastructure projects voluntarily installed in Baltimore City through 2019
Much of the green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, has been installed voluntarily by nonprofits and community groups, yet no comprehensive record of these installations previously existed. We worked with nonprofit stakeholders and Baltimore’s Department of Public Works to compile such a record, using both information provided by these agencies and publicly available data sources such as annual reports and newspaper articles. This dataset includes all voluntary green stormwater infrastructure projects that we were able to identify by the end of 2019, with the first known installation completed in 2001. The dataset includes two data tables, one with project-level information, and one with the locations of individual GSI facilities included in each project.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1855277
- PAR ID:
- 10474684
- Publisher / Repository:
- Environmental Data Initiative
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is increasingly used to reduce stormwater input to the subsurface stormwater network. This work investigated how GSI interacts with surface runoff and stormwater structures to affect the spatial extent and distribution of roadway flooding and subsequent effects on the performance of the traffic system using a dual-drainage model. The model simulated roadway flooding using PCSWMM (Personal Computer Stormwater Management Model) in Harvard Gulch, Denver, Colorado, and was then used in a microscopic traffic simulation using the Simulation of Urban Mobility Model (SUMO). We examined the effect of converting between 1% and 5% of directly connected impervious area (DCIA) to bioretention GSI on roadway flooding. The results showed that even for 1% of DCIA converted to GSI, the extent and mean depth of roadway flooding was reduced. Increasing GSI conversion further reduced roadway flooding depth and extent, although with diminishing returns per additional percentage of DCIA converted to GSI. Reduced roadway flooding led to increased average vehicle speeds and decreased percentage of roads impacted by flooding and total travel time. We found diminishing returns in the roadway flooding reduction per additional percentage of DCIA converted to GSI. Future work will be conducted to reduce the main limitations of insufficient data for model validation. Detailed dual-drainage modeling has the potential to better predict what GSI strategies will mitigate roadway flooding.more » « less
-
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is advocated for its potential to provide multiple ecosystem services, including stormwater runoff mitigation, wildlife habitat, and aesthetic value. However, the provision of these ecosystem services depends on both facility design and maintenance, which may vary based on whether GSI was installed to fulfill regulatory construction permit requirements or implemented voluntarily as part of urban greening initiatives. We evaluated 76 GSI facilities distributed across Baltimore, MD, USA, comprising 48 voluntary and 28 regulatory facilities. Each facility was scored on indicators related to the provision of stormwater, habitat, and aesthetic ecosystem services. Ecosystem service scores were highly variable, reflecting a wide range of quality and condition, but we found no significant differences between scores for regulatory and voluntary GSI. However, voluntary GSI scores tended to be higher in areas with greater socioeconomic status, while regulatory facilities showed an inverse relationship. Our findings indicate that GSI facilities can degrade quickly, and that official maintenance requirements for regulatory facilities do not guarantee upkeep. Regulatory requirements did have better outcomes in areas with lower socioeconomic status, though. Degraded GSI facilities may do more harm than good, becoming both unsightly and ineffective at providing intended stormwater or habitat benefits.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)As climate change alters precipitation patterns, stakeholders will need to understand how performance of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) could change in response. As an alternative to using on-site monitoring, which may not always feasible, we propose that changes in performance could be tracked using annual rainfall measures (e.g., maximum daily rainfall per year). We estimated performance of GSI in 17 U.S. cities using rainfall measures by establishing linear relationships with specific performance metrics (e.g., frequency of discharge). Prediction accuracy was evaluated in 2 cities for the period 2020 to 2060 by comparing performance predicted from rainfall trends from regional climate models (RCMs) with simulated performance in SWMM using the same RCMs as input. Findings suggest that tracking rainfall measures can provide insight into the hydrologic performance of green infrastructure by predicting the direction of change, as well as, the magnitude within 25% to 50% percent change.more » « less
-
Integrating the Spatial Configurations of Green and Gray Infrastructure in Urban Stormwater NetworksAbstract Green infrastructure (GI) practices improve stormwater quality and reduce urban flooding, but as urban hydrology is highly controlled by its associated gray infrastructure (e.g., stormwater pipe network), GI's watershed‐scale performance depends on its siting within its associated watershed. Although many stormwater practitioners have begun considering GI's spatial configuration within a larger watershed, few approaches allow for flexible scenario exploration, which can untangle GI's interaction with gray infrastructure network and assess its effects on watershed hydrology. To address the gap in integrated gray‐green infrastructure planning, we used an exploratory model to examine gray‐green infrastructure performance using synthetic stormwater networks with varying degrees of flow path meandering, informed by analysis on stormwater networks from the Minneapolis‐St. Paul Metropolitan Area, MN, USA. Superimposed with different coverage and placements of GI (e.g., bioretention cells), these gray‐green stormwater networks are then subjected to different rainfall intensities within Environmental Protection Agency's Storm Water Management Model to simulate their hydrological benefits (e.g., peak flow reduction, flood reduction). Although only limited choices of green and gray infrastructure were explored, the results show that the gray infrastructure's spatial configuration can introduce tradeoffs between increased peak flow and increased flooding, and further interacts with GI coverage and placement to reduce peak flow and flooding at low rainfall intensity. However, as rainfall intensifies, GI ceases to reduce peak flow. For integrated gray‐green infrastructure planning, our results suggest that physical constraints of the stormwater networks and the range of rainfall intensities must be considered when implementing GI.more » « less
