As the impacts of climate change become increasingly evident worldwide, there is a dire need to better understand the practical implications of these changes on water resources in the built environment. Of particular concern are stormwater management systems, which lie on the front line of changes to rainfall patterns. Stormwater control measures (SCMs) have historically been used, in some cases for decades, to alleviate the deleterious effects of urban hydrology on nearby surface waters. Although a valuable tool for building resilience to climate change, these systems themselves may also be at risk of shifts in performance as new weather patterns emerge. In the age of climate non-stationarity, it is largely unknown: (1) how such designs will function under future climate scenarios, (2) what design modifications are needed to ensure SCMs are providing the desired level of protection, and (3) what should be considered by the watershed management community in regards to climate change that is not. In this presentation, we will discuss the efforts by the UWRRC Climate Change Impacts on Stormwater Control Measures Technical Committee to summarize the state of knowledge regarding SCM performance under climate change, identify design modifications to SCMs that have been explored, propose challenges that lie ahead, and provide a vision for moving forward.
