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USING TRADABLE CREDITS TO MANAGE STORMWATER
Citation:
Thurston**, H, H C. Goddard, B Lemberg**, D C. Szlag*, AND W. Shuster**. USING TRADABLE CREDITS TO MANAGE STORMWATER. Presented at Water Environment Federation Watershed 2002 Conference, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 02/25-27/2002.
Description:
Excess stormwater runoff causes degradation of urban stream habitat through conveyance of pollutants and disruption of normal stream flow regimes. Following on acceptance of tradable permits as a mechanism for reducing certain air pollutants, we propose the use of a system of tradable credits within a watershed to promote establishment of a network of distributed "best management practices" (BMPs) to reduce excess stormwater runoff. Assuming variation in suitability, efficiency and cost of BMPs across a watershed (based on variation in land characterizatics), and increasing marginal abatement costs, we show that tradable credits can provide incentive to build and maintain BMPs where they are most efficient, thereby providing control of excess stormwater runoff at a cost lower than large-scale engineering alternatives.
Using individual property level data for the Shepherd Creek in Cincinnati, OH (specific attributes including soil type, land use, slope and impervious surface proportion, and BMP cost), we develop scenarios varying growth, runoff abatement level, and credit price. Property owners face cost-minimizing decisions under constraints based on stream ecology. Total costs, returns and impacts on streamflow are compared among tradable credit and command-and-control scenarios. Total costs incurred under a credit/trading/dispersed BMPs system are also compared to those of alternative engineering strategies for stormwater runoff control. The use of ArcView geographic information system (GIS) to present and manipulate the spatial data for various scenarios allows insightful display of results.