An evaluation of the Stormwater Footprint Calculator and the Hydrological Footprint Residence for communicating about sustainability in stormwater management

Abstract

Low-Impact Development (LID) can enhance sustainability in stormwater management by attenuating excess runoff. Relevant technologies are typically implemented at individual lots and require the engagement of homeowners and developers. A new educational tool, the Stormwater Footprint Calculator (SFC), was developed to improve knowledge and change attitudes and behavior regarding stormwater sustainability. Similar to online carbon-footprint calculators, the SFC synthesizes a participant's answers about lot-and neighborhood-level land use and calculates hypothetical effects on in-stream flows, using hydrologic simulation. Participants receive feedback about their stormwater footprint using a new metric, the Hydrologic Footprint Residence (HFR), which measures the effect of urbanization on stream flow based on the duration and extent of flooding. An experiment was fielded to test the SFC as a tool for communicating about sustainable stormwater management and to compare the HFR against an orthodox stormwater metric, peak flow. A convenience sample of undergraduate students (N = 510) participated in the experiment. The results indicate that completing the SFC improves knowledge about the causes of stormwater runoff and LID technologies (although not about the effects of stormwater, which was already high among the students), and it influences intention to support sustainable stormwater management. The results also indicate that HFR provides a viable alternative to conventional engineering metrics for communicating a stormwater footprint and shows the value of online calculators for communicating complex civil engineering concepts.

Sustainable urban drainage: delineation of a scientific domain of knowledge production

“…SUD research can be classified into: alternative techniques (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014), best management practices (Davis, Hunt, Traver, & Clar, 2009;Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014;Zhou, 2014), bioretention systems (R. A. Brown & Hunt III, 2010;Davis, 2008), compensatory techniques (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014), design stormwater (Park, Chung, Yoo, & Kim, 2012), diffuse pollution control (Panagopoulos, Makropoulos, & Mimikou, 2013), green infrastructure (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014), integrated urban water management (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014), low impact development (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014;T. J. Scott et al, 2014;Zhou, 2014), low impact urban design and development (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014;Zhou, 2014), management of urban drainage (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014), management of urban water (R. Brown, 2005;Lee & Yigitcanlar, 2010), source control (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014), stormwater control measures (Tim D. Fletcher et al, 2014), stormwater management (Davis et al, 2009;Roseen et al, 2009;T.…”

Numerical Experiments on Low Impact Development for Urban Resilience Index

“…The first flush is positively correlated with peak rainfall intensity, rainfall duration, and antecedent dry weather period, and the regression coefficients would vary with the characteristics of the catchment [37]; it is speculated that the runoff caused by rainfall needs to be transmitted over long distances in large catchment areas, thereby it would conceal the appearance of the first flush or decrease the accuracy of monitoring [38]; this study is the first one, in which the index MFF n is applied to the simulation of a large catchment area, so the original index is modified to the Mass Emission First Flush ratio (MEFF n ), which could more clearly estimate the volume of pollutants in the runoff under different rainfall scenarios. By evaluating the effectiveness of LID for quantity control, HFR could have a better ability to represent the time series and dynamics of flow changes rather than peak flow [20,[39][40][41].…”

Bioretention for diffuse pollution control in SUDS using experimental-adaptive approaches of ecohydrology

“…While originating in the broad strategies of environmental management, urban drainage can be understood as a network of relationships between intellectual, social, physical, chemical, and biological processes (GELDOF, 2005). Fletcher et al, 2014), stormwater management Roseen et al, 2009;T. J. Scott et al, 2014;Zakaria, Ab Ghani, Abdullah, Mohd.…”