Identifying stormwater pond design and management features that sustain long term performance

Summary

Stormwater ponds are key features in urban landscapes for managing runoff and improving water quality. However, clear guidance on how best to implement and manage them for long-term performance is currently lacking. This project develops data needed to inform a robust analysis that will identify major design and maintenance factors that can help sustain high water quality functions over extended periods of time. The project harmonizes, standardizes, and develops data collected by cities and watershed organizations, and collects and integrates new data to fill gaps and to provide data needed to address key project goals. Specifically, this project identified a key data gap for recently constructed ponds 10 to 20 years old where water quality diverges following construction, which will be a focus for new data collection. Resulting data will be used for predictive analysis to understand how vegetation and water quality changes over time in stormwater ponds, and how design and management factors such as depth, watershed features, or dredging influence on functions. Predictive models will be translated to guidance that can be used in considerations of design and management, and the curated database will be published as a resource for future use by researchers and managers.