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“Jurisdictions are struggling to make their infrastructure more resilient in light of challenges such as recurrent flooding, higher intensity and longer duration rainfall events, aging conveyance systems, and the lack of financial resources, to name just a few issues,” wrote Jacob Dorman. “Before you can solve the problem of providing resilient BMPs, you must first understand what resiliency is all about in the first place. It’s an immense undertaking at the community scale and requires a seismic shift from historical thinking.”

“A partnership between the Philadelphia Water Department and Drexel University’s Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Lab uses sensors on green infrastructure in order to utilize city storm water more efficiently,” reports Ben Levine. It just so happens that Drexel’s campus has a variety of green infrastructure project types that make it a good test bed for developing new and more efficient approaches to monitoring and using new technology and networks. They have developed low-cost and low-power sensor networks to collect environmental data from green infrastructure in real time.

Andrew Reese sees stormwater management going “back to the future” faster than a 1982 DeLorean with a “flux capacitor.” Even if you don’t get his clever reference to the Steven Spielberg movie, it suffices to say: Big changes are coming out when it comes to regulating pollutants in stormwater. And, it turns out, mimicking nature with green infrastructure can provide a reliable means of meeting new standards.

“Capturing rainwater where if falls offers appealing technical alternatives to stormwater runoff capture than conventional end-of-pipe measures. Decentralized controls have the potential to reduce the frequency and volume of CSO events. In addition, a decentralized approach to stormwater management allows communities the flexibility to respond to everchanging economic and environmental conditions,” stated Neil Weinsten.

“This new regulatory framework will transform the District’s impervious areas into a more river-friendly landscape. It is a critical step toward making District waterbodies more usable and attractive,” said Keith Anderson.

“The rule is expected to place more emphasis on using green infrastructure. EPA will need to put something out soon so that all sides are at least debating a specific proposal rather than speculating on its content,” concludes Janice Kaspersen.

“Rain gardens are being embraced worldwide because they do their job so well. The worry is that these same, very efficient rain gardens that are cropping up in our parking strips and front yards are doing their job so well that they could become residential toxic sites. But in fact are they? Not according to the research that’s available,” writes Lisa Stiffler.

“Rooftops to Rivers II profiles the approaches taken by 14 cities in the US and Canada, revealing just how far the use of green infrastructure has spread and just how adaptable it is,” writes Noah Garrison.

“The Carnegie Group of Olympia believes proposed LID rule will most likely spell the demise of Puget Sound by failing to protect tributary watersheds,” states Carol Richmond.

“The consequence of the Department of Ecology's 'flow-duration' standard will be development that will result in exactly the opposite of a healthy watershed,” says Tom Holz.