Stormwater Management: Using trees and structural soils – manual cover (360p)
Researchers know that urban forests, like rural forest land, can play a pivotal role in rainwater/stormwater mitigation. Structural soil reservoirs may provide new opportunities for meeting engineering, environmental, and greenspace management needs in urban areas.
Gary Noble (120p) – City of Nanaimo
Solutions to climate change often originate from small scale community initiatives. This project is an excellent example of local scale action that can provide valuable information. Green roofs have an immense potential for offsetting carbon emissions originating from building operations.
A recently completed rainwater/stormwater management system will remove up to 85% of the stormwater pollutants released into Little Bridge Creek.
In 2005 Bruce Ferguson completed the first comprehensive guide to porous pavements, which have been called “the holy grail of environmental site design” and “potentially the biggest development in urban watersheds since the invention of the automobile.”
Permeable Pavers – photo
Stormwater Magazine – September 2009
Permeable pavement is one of four recommended low-impact development (LID) methods promoted in an LID manual being developed by Sarasota County, Florida, and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
In the January 2009 issue of Stormwater magazine, writer Christopher Estes presents monitoring data for three sites in the North Carolina Piedmont that demonstrate the success of rainwater/stormwater infiltation in clay soils.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's stormwater program — which oversees stormwater discharged by cities, industries, and construction activities — needs radical changes if it is to improve the quality of the nation’s waters, says a new report from the National Research Council. It recommends that permits be based on watershed boundaries, and the program focus on the impact of increased water volume rather than chemical pollutants.
In 2004 the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC) in Sonoma County established the WATER Institute (Watershed Advocacy, Training, Education & Research) to promote an understanding of the importance of healthy watersheds to healthy communities. OAEC’s WATER Institute builds upon their many years of regional watershed research, restoration, advocacy, community organizing, and activism.
“Soils for Salmon” is an initiative of the Washington Organic Recycling Council. Soil performs valuable functions: nourishing plants, absorbing and cleaning stormwater. These functions are often degraded during development when soil is removed or compacted. Restoring healthy soil is essential to protecting our waterways and salmon, and our way of life in the Puget Sound region. Builders, developers, and landscapers are adopting practices that preserve and improve the soil on building sites, and protect waterways, and local governments are beginning to require it.
King County in Washington State became one of the first jurisdictions in the United States to adopt and implement a post-construction soil standard. Its regulation went into effect January 1, 2005. King County’s post-construction soil standard has changed the way developers plan and develop a site in unincorporated parts of the county.
