Can there ever be enough? Analysis of the adoption, penetration and effectiveness of urban stormwater management practices
- Status: Funded by the U.S. Geological Survey 104(g) Program
- Duration: September 2014 to August 2017
- PI: Laura C. Bowling, Department of Agronomy, Purdue University
- Co-PIs: Linda Prokopy (FNR, Purdue) and Sara Peel (WREC)
- Graduate Students: Fushcia Hoover (ABE, PhD), Sanoar Rahman (ABE, PhD) and Yuling Gau (ABE, PhD)
Project Summary:
Stormwater conservation practices, such as rain gardens, rain barrels and permeable pavement, offer a real means to decrease stormwater volumes and reduce water quality impacts. While these stormwater conservation practices offer potential to reduce impacts, utilization of urban conservation practices is generally lower than their agricultural counterparts. Poor penetration is attributed to several reasons, including more numerous landowners with less property, a limited number of cost incentive programs and fewer formal public education programs than found in the agricultural community. This situation has tended to repeat itself as there have been few efforts to understand this complex condition and, as a result, there is little information regarding the adoption of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) by urban and suburban landowners, the benefits of targeting specific communities for adoption of BMPs or the net stormwater benefit from such targeted adoption programs. This lack of knowledge regarding stakeholder motivations contributes to a high level of uncertainty and leads to reluctance amongst organizations that might cost-share stormwater conservation.
Our evaluation of the watershed-scale effectiveness of BMP implementation in the Greater Lafayette area will build on our partnerships with the Wabash River Enhancement Corporation (WREC) community organization and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for watershed management planning and monitoring. The long-term goal of this project is to improve water quality and document water quality improvements in urban streams through the use of urban stormwater BMPs.
Our specific project objectives include:
- Evaluate the level of BMP adoption and intensity and duration of sampling needed to demonstrate statistically significant change;
- Assess factors influencing practice adoption, penetration and permanence; and
- Develop watershed management planning strategies for achieving urban water quality goals.