State-of-the-Practice of Stormwater Engineering in the Chesapeake Bay Basin

Lead Investigator: Dr. Shirley Clark
Team Members: Sarah Ryan, Bridget Pounds

This project focuses on the current state of the practice of stormwater engineering in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and what tools are available to help designers improve their stormwater management designs. This project had two parts. First is a survey of current stormwater practitioners (engineers and regulators) in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The survey builds on prior surveys conducted by the USEPA as part of other research projects. This survey queried people about their design guidelines and the tools that they use to predict water quality and performance of stormwater control measures. While continuous simulation computer models are available, much of the profession is still using single design storm analysis. The second part of the project focused on the use of the International BMP Database, a repository of monitored water quality information that was originally funded by the US EPA. The analysis of the data in the BMP database were used to relate engineering design parameters to predicted water quality.

Click here to download the project presentation