How do the stormwater benefits of Silva Cell suspended pavement tree/soil systems compare to the stormwater benefits of traditional bioretention systems? Since the mechanisms by which the tree and soil provide the stormwater benefits in these systems are the same as those in traditional bioretention, we expected the benefits to be comparable as well. The… More
For the last two weeks in December I’m be re-posting some of my favorite blog posts from this year. Today’s shares some of the most exciting news we got in 2013, when the Washington State Department of Ecology recognized the Silva Cell as being functionally equivalent to a rain garden. Scroll all the way to the… More
I’ve discussed using trees and soils (green infrastructure) to manage stormwater in two recent webinars. This is a rich and complex topic, so to help break it down into digestible pieces I organize it in to what I call the First Principles of Urban Stormwater Systems. Those first principles are listed in the illustration above…. More
A study recently published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening presents data showing that trees planted in paving can significantly reduce stormwater runoff. The results, published by D. Armson, P. Stringer, and A.R. Ennos, are taken from data collected in Manchester, UK from January 2011 to September 2011. The study created 5 test sites, each containing three 9… More
Last month, I read an article about the merits of starting small when it comes to stormwater harvesting projects. The article started with the statement that some cities that have evaluated stormwater harvesting have concluded that the investment is too large relative to the benefits. It then goes on to examine the town of Wrightsville… More
I spent a good part of last winter completing a literature review on bioretention media for a revision to the Minnesota Stormwater Manual. So when I attended the Low Impact Development (LID) conference in St. Paul, MN earlier this month, I was very interested to learn of a recent specification coming out of New Zealand:… More
Stormwater permits are maturing in the greater D.C. region, driven by Chesapeake Bay and Anacostia River restoration mandates. Two of the three major Anacostia stormwater permits – for Montgomery County (issued in 2010) and the District of Columbia (issued in 2011), carry real clout in the form of retrofitting mandates with required numbers of impervious… More
LEED version 4 (V4) is the fourth and latest iteration from LEED (Leadership Environment, Energy & Design), a rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and independently certified by the Green Building Certification Institute. The primary mission of LEED is to encourage the marketplace to provide sustainable buildings, sites, and neighborhood development using… More
Due to technical difficulties that prevented some people from joining last month’s webinar with guest speaker James Urban, FASLA, on the topic of “Using Trees and Soils in Urban Stormwater Management,” we will be offering the same webinar again on September 4th at 10am Pacific (please note that the start time will vary by time zone).
Randy Neprash has been a champion of using trees for urban stormwater management for longer than almost anyone else we know. A water resources engineer and stormwater regulatory specialist for Bonestroo, now Stantec, Randy is also the technical consultant for the Minnesota Cities Stormwater Coalition, an organization of about 120 Minnesota cities that are regulated… More
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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