How Floodplain and Stormwater Managers Can Use EPA’s New LID Handbook

摘要

Low Impact Development and Green Infrastructure (LID/GI) practices can help manage waterquantity by reducing excess volumes of runoff, in addition to improving water quality. EPA ispreparing a handbook that will be useful to floodplain managers in understanding how LID/GIfits into flood risk management planning by mitigating localized and watershed-wide frequent,small storm flooding. The handbook demonstrates the benefits of LID/GI in providing anintegrated approach to environmentally-sound watershed and fiscally-responsible floodplainmanagement program.The handbook will be a chapter in EPA’s on-going series of short, step-by-step guides to assistlocal governments in building green infrastructure in their communities. The handbook includes examples from across the country of the natural flood storage benefits ofLID/GI as well as a wide variety of approaches to incorporate LID/GI to improve stormwaterand floodplain management. In addition, non-structural flood risk management approachesinclude zoning, stormwater ordinances, and building codes, and other associated steps that canimprove water quality while reducing frequent, small storm flooding risk are addressed. Theforthcoming handbook, expected to be available in 2013, provides information on improvedfloodplain natural function to assist floodplain and stormwater managers.