An Assessment of Impediments to Low-Impact Development in the Virginia Portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

摘要

Stormwater runoff from urban and urbanizing areas poses a serious threat to water quality, and unless managed properly will impede efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay.Water quantity, as well as quality, must be considered, and Low Impact Development(LID) is an innovative stormwater management approach that addresses both. LID seeks to mimic a siteu27s predevelopment hydrologic regime by retaining and treating stormwater at the lot level using small, cost-effective landscape features.The purpose for this study was to identify and rank impediments to the implementation of LID in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This was accomplished by going to LID workshops and distributing a survey to stakeholders in attendance. The survey asked respondents to rank the following impediments to the implementation of LID: site-specific u26 non-structural, property owner acceptance, pollutant removal benefit, development rules, lack of education, maintenance considerations, flooding problems, and cost. Lack of education was ranked as the most important impediment, with development rules following close behind. Pollutant removal benefit was ranked the least important impediment. A second purpose was to assess whether there is a relationship between a countyu27s growth rate and adoption of Better Site Design principles (BSD) and LID. A Code and Ordinance Worksheet was used to evaluate the development rules of 13 counties (6 high growth, 3 medium growth and 4 low growth) within Virginiau27s portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The scores from the worksheets were used to determine if the amount of growth pressure experienced by a county influenced the degree to which they incorporated BSD and LID in their local development codes. Statistical testing revealed that the relationship between growth pressure and score on the Code and Ordinance Worksheet was moderate, at best.