Grantee Research Project Results
Evaluation of Hydrologic and Water Quality Benefits of Infiltration-Based Urban Stormwater Management
EPA Grant Number: U915549Title: Evaluation of Hydrologic and Water Quality Benefits of Infiltration-Based Urban Stormwater Management
Investigators: Holman-Dodds, Jennifer K.
Institution: University of Iowa
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: August 1, 1999 through August 31, 2002
Project Amount: $80,316
RFA: STAR Graduate Fellowships (1999) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Academic Fellowships , Safer Chemicals , Fellowship - Civil Engineering
Objective:
The objective of this research project is to better understand the processes that control urban stormwater quantity and quality and to address the potential of low-impact, nonstructural stormwater management strategies using hydrologic modeling.
Approach:
To gain a broad-based understanding of urban stormwater infiltration and runoff, field observations will be combined with numerical hydrologic modeling. The first phase of this project will include gathering existing information and developing some simplified preliminary analyses to help clarify the important issues and processes that govern this problem. The second phase will include field infiltration measurements to explore the influence of type of vegetative cover on the infiltration rate, as well as the evolution of infiltration rate over time as vegetation is established. The third phase will approach the problem using computational hydrologic models at a variety of scales. Small-scale modeling will be used to examine local water budgets, infiltration patterns, and runoff and contaminant transport patterns. This will be complemented by large-scale modeling to better understand how the effects of local stormwater management strategies aggregate at the scale of a small watershed.
The research will provide a broad-based understanding of urban stormwater infiltration and runoff and will lead to a better understanding of the processes that control urban stormwater quantity and quality.
Supplemental Keywords:
fellowship, hydrology, modeling, watersheds, engineering, Midwest, stormwater, urban, runoff, Scientific Discipline, Water, Ground Water, Civil/Environmental Engineering, Wet Weather Flows, Ecology and Ecosystems, collaborative hydrologic modeling, hydrologic dynamics, watershed, runoff, urban runoff, vegetation, water quality, storm waterProgress and Final Reports:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.