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SUSTAIN - A BMP PROCESS AND PLACEMENT TOOL FOR URBAN WATERSHEDS
Citation:
LAI, DENNIS, S. VALLABHANENI, C. CHAN, E. H. BURGESS, AND R. W. FIELD. SUSTAIN - A BMP PROCESS AND PLACEMENT TOOL FOR URBAN WATERSHEDS. Presented at Engineering Conference International MODELING CONFERENCE, ARCATA, CA, July 22 - 27, 2007.
Impact/Purpose:
to present information
Description:
Watershed and stormwater managers need modeling tools to evaluate how best to address environmental quality restoration and protection needs in urban and developing areas. Significant investments are needed to protect and restore water quality, address total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), and evaluate and design sustainable stormwater management systems. A number of stormwater control strategies, commonly known as best management practices (BMPs) or low-impact developments (LIDs), are used to mitigate stormwater runoff volumes and associated nonpoint source pollution. To assist stormwater management professionals in planning for BMP/LID implementation, efforts have been under way by USEPA since 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 system is called the System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis INtegration (SUSTAIN). SUSTAIN has seven key components: framework manager, ArcGIS interface, land runoff module, BMP process module, cost-optimization module, post-processor, and Microsoft Access database. They are integrated under a common ArcGIS platform. The figure below shows a conceptual diagram of SUSTAIN. USEPA plans to release a beta version of SUSTAIN in 2008.