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Despite the development of urban drainage systems over the past 5000 years, there are still many challenges to their effective use. There are growing demands with respect to runoff quantity and quality, visual amenity (landscape aesthetics), protection of ecology and beneficial water uses and interaction with the operation of existing municipal wastewater systems. Current solutions that rely mainly on pipe networks may not be sustainable, especially in developing countries. By considering the driving forces in action during the first years of the 21st century, different scenarios for the future use and development of urban drainage systems can be proposed; all of them rather pessimistic. The implementation of the sustainable management of urban water will require an integrated approach to all the related problems, including the better delivery of urban drainage services.

The use of sand and other media filters is gaining acceptance in the field of urban stormwater structural best management practice. Much work has been done to develop local design guidance, such as in the State of Delaware and in Austin, Texas. Also, considerable field testing of these devices has occurred during the last 10 years. This paper consolidates much of the earlier work and provides the technical basis for the design of media filters for stonnwater runoff treatment at any location in the U.S. The approach uses the unit processes known to exist in urban storrnwater runoff and within filter devices. The suggested design is based on hydraulic capacity of the filter media, which, in tum, is a function of the total suspended solids removed by the filter. Water Environ. Res., 71, 102 (1999).

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