Innovative Technologies for Storm-Water Management Programs in Small Urbanized Areas

摘要

Small urbanized areas (UAs) as defined by the U.S. Census and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have a population between 50,000 and 100,000, and a population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile. Under Phase Ⅱ of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, storm-water managers in these UAs must preserve predevelopment hydrology through compliance with qualitative regulations-an often impracticable task given the limited resources of these municipal authorities and the diffuse hydrologic impacts of urbanization. The objective of this paper is to assist storm-water managers by providing a geographic information system (GIS) workflow supported by Python scripting that produces a geographic database of storm-water infrastructure that can subsequently be used to create a fully parameterized hydrologic/hydraulic model. Guidance on calibrating this model is then provided with suggestions for measuring discharge in storm sewer systems. The application of these objectives is demonstrated in a watershed in Blacksburg, Virginia, where a unique municipal-academic partnership fostered the development of this work. Finally, improvements and further research ideas are suggested for storm-water management in small UAs.