“Most communities have developed in similar ways regardless of climate. Design principles have facilitated swift conveyance of stormwater and the pollutants it carries into receiving waters. This practice and other unfortunate consequences of past design must change,” says Tom Liptan.
The Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) – commissioned a research project to create “Stormwater Source Controls Design Guidelines 2005”. The objective of this project was to promote effective implementation of rainwater source controls in the Georgia Basin region of British Columbia.
“The key is what we do at the site scale because our actions over time can either have cumulative impacts or cumulative benefits. Drawing on the District’s GIS resources, I was able to identify representative properties from different eras – 50 years ago and today – to illustrate how the current approach to site development results in dramatically greater volumes of surface volume,” stated Richard Boase.
Capturing rainwater where if falls offers appealing technical alternatives to stormwater runoff capture than conventional end-of-pipe measures.
