Remediation of Urban Stormwater using Best Management Practices and Low-Impact Development Green Infrastructures

Low impact developments (LID) and best management practices (BMP) are methods that were devised to address hydrology and water quality concerns in urban and rural environments. BMPs are designed to remediate a predetermined drainage area and volumetric flow of stormwater runoff. BMP allows the water to either evapotranspiration or infiltrate into the ground allowing the water to reenter the water cycle at its own pace, recharging the groundwater and preventing flooding. The plants in the BMP provide the water treatment by absorbing, sequestering, vaporizing, or metabolizing the pollutants out of the water. The purpose of this study is to explore methodology for maintaining the long-term effectiveness of a BMP structure. There are many factors to determine the long-term effectiveness of a BMP such as the maintenance performed on the structure, the health of the plant-life, the age of the structure, climate conditions, and public knowledge on the purpose of BMPs. After a while, the plants in the BMP will begin to die off, weeds and other invasive plant species crowd out the native plants in the structure, and the bed will fill with silt and trash. Part of the study is to determine how these factors impact performance and determine the critical threshold for addressing these problems. To establish a BMP performance index, it is necessary to first determine a benchmark for performance. The effectiveness of a BMP decreases over time and the amount of stormwater remediation decreases. The decrease in effectiveness over time can be charted and used to determine a maintenance schedule and important optimization milestones.