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DECISION SUPPORT FRAMEWORK FOR PLACEMENT OF BMPS IN URBAN WATERSHEDS
Citation:
LAI, DENNIS, L. SHOEMAKER, AND M. CHENG. DECISION SUPPORT FRAMEWORK FOR PLACEMENT OF BMPS IN URBAN WATERSHEDS. Presented at EPA Science Forum 2005 - Collaborative Science for Environmental Solutions, Washington, DC, May 16 - 18, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public
Description:
To assist stormwater management professionals in planning for best management practices (BMPs) implementation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) initiated a research in 2003 to develop a decision support system for placement of BMPs at strategic locations in urban watersheds. This tool will help develop, evaluate, select, and place BMP options based on cost and effectiveness. The tool is called the Integrated Stormwater Management Decision Support Framework (ISMDSF). The ISMDSF, a generic public domain framework, will provide a means for objective analysis of watershed management alternatives among multiple interacting and competing factors. The desired outcome from the ISMDSF application is a thorough, practical, and informative decision making considering economic, environmental, and engineering factors. This research started with a systematic review of watershed management needs and issues, current and emerging GIS data management technology, and available watershed and BMP process simulation models. Then a comprehensive design of the framework and algorithms for process simulation were developed. The ISMDSF has seven key components: framework manager, ArcGIS interface, watershed model, BMP model, optimization model, post-processor, and Microsoft Access database. They are integrated under a common ArcGIS platform. The watershed model predicts flow and pollutant loading for input to BMPs and the BMP model performs process-based simulation to derive their performance (effectiveness). The ISMDSF will support evaluation of BMP placement at multiple scales from a few city blocks to large watersheds and provide a unified and consistent approach for evaluating the effects of BMP implementation. This research is being conducted through an extramural contract with Tetra Tech, Fairfax, VA, a leader in watershed and BMP modeling. The project is also in partnership with the Prince George's County, MD as the County's permitted their existing process-based BMP model to be used as one component of the ISMDSF. In addition to the existing BMP Model, the ISMDSF will also tag into the ongoing County's project, funded by EPA Region 3, to enhance the BMP Model and add a cost-optimization routine for analysis and application of BMP and low-impact development (LID) technologies for minimizing combined sewer overflows in the Anacostia River Watershed in the District of Columbia. The ISMDSF, targeted to be fully developed and tested in 2007-2008, will be open coded and eventually released at no charge to the public for national application.