A GIS-Based Framework Creating Green Stormwater Infrastructure Inventory Relevant to Surface Transportation Planning

Abstract

The stormwater runoff that carries pollutants from the land adjacent to road transportation systems may impair the water environment and threaten the ecosystem and human health. A proper management approach like green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) can help control flooding and the runoff pollutants. One barrier for GSI analysis relevant to system-level surface transportation planning is the lack of the inventory of GSI in many U.S. cities. This study aims to develop a GIS-based framework for creating GSI inventory in a time and labor efficient way, different from the traditional survey-based method. The new proposed framework consists of three steps, including road categorization, GSI mapping, and GSI type identification using the GIS data, high-resolution land-cover image, and Google Earth street view pictures. The new approach was tested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and also applied in Tampa, Florida. The results showed that the new GIS-based framework can achieve similar accuracy to the survey-based method while saving time and labor. The GSI inventory created in the study demonstrated the usefulness of the proposed framework for analyzing the status of GSI implementation and identifying gaps for future planning in terms of potential locations and underrepresented GSI types.watershed scale [12]. To facilitate a system level analysis for urban stormwater management, a spatial GSI inventory at a large scale (sub-watershed or watershed) is needed. However, the GSI inventory is currently lacking in many United States (U.S.) cities. This is because the traditional method to create such an inventory is based on survey and inspection data collection [13,14]. It can help build up the GSI inventory accurately, but consumes time and labor meaning that not all cities can afford it. A new framework is needed to construct an inventory of the implemented GSI using the existing geospatial data in a more efficient and economical manner. Such a framework could benefit GSI system-wide assessment and modeling, and future stormwater infrastructure planning.The previous studies on the topic of urban GSI mapping primarily focused on identifying the potential opportunities for implementing GSI [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Among the limited number of the studies that mapped implemented GSI, some applied geospatial techniques such as remote sensing to enhance the land use/land cover classification using the remotely sensed images [21][22][23][24]. However, most of them focused on GSI detection under the connotation of 'green space.' In other words, they intended to find the GSI footprints without consideration of the unique features of engineered GSI (i.e., GSI types). These studies contributed to the development of the GSI mapping method but lacked actual applications of their methods. Moreover, there is no study focusing on either mapping the implemented GSI or identifying various types of GSI based on their surface features. Hale et al. used topographic data and aerial imagery to identify retention basins; however, this study was l...

Strategic Assessment and Economic Evaluation: The Case Study of Yanzhou Island (China)

“…Thirdly, the combination of SWOT with other multi-criteria analysis methods could generate new models to support the decision and to improve the consensus building, which would allow the inclusion of other criteria evaluation scales [22,50]. Fourthly, the integration of decision framework model with GIS (Geographic Information System) technology would facilitate planning decisions at regional scale, through spatial and interactive representations of suitability problems [51,52]. Finally, future work could be developed for the design of the alternative solutions considered in the research.…”