Dealing with Stormwater

Seminar Description:
Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) is typically built for multi-purposes: stormwater treatment and green space. Established vegetation is used to achieve the designed functions. However, plants often fail before established. When plants die, GSI becomes a not-so-good sand filter. The main reason is that plants undergo constant stresses: either too wet or too dry. By design, GSI is flooded during storms. Also by design, porous growth media is used to drain & dry out quickly between rain events. The extreme variations in soil moisture make it very hard for any plants to survive. This presentation will review novel technologies that can address this problem by using some of the abundant stormwater in GSI. Capturing the stormwater enhances the stormwater reduction and retention feature of GSI. In between storms and drought, the stored stormwater is used to irrigate the plants to ensure their survival.



There are other stresses on the GSI. For example, salt is a common one in northern climates (from road salt) and coastal areas with seawater intrusion and coastal flooding. We will also discuss the potential solutions to these stresses.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn the importance and the challenges encountered in green stormwater infrastructures.
2. Discuss the stresses in GSI: soil moisture fluctuation, compaction, heat island, drought, and other aspects, as well as the current methods of solving these issues, the Standard Operating Procedures
3. Discuss new methods and technologies that can help solve the problems review case studies in different regions, climates, and environments, and discuss what worked and what did not work.