ABSTRACT
Stormwater infrastructure policy and practice have come full circle in the new millennium. Stormwater infrastructure was originally designed to address flooding in urban areas, but during the past two decades the emphasis has been on addressing pollutants from stormwater runoff. Federal regulations have required large-scale “gray” infrastructure solutions to retain stormwater at or close to the central treatment plant until pollutants have been removed. Now leading-edge cities are looking at the costs of this massive infrastructure and are promoting green infrastructure options and resilient city developments to slow down the path of stormwater. The new vision for stormwater infrastructure is also due to global warming, which causes more severe storms, higher ocean levels and potentially serious damage to existing urban settlements. In drought areas, a fresh look is being taken at stormwater as an urban water source. These factors have brought together hazard mitigation, pollution control, and water supply professionals in search of a more decentralized approach that involves urban design, zoning, and building regulations and emergency response planning as well as distributed and natural approaches to stormwater control. Adaptation planning in response to increased and more severe weather events ties into the “one-water” paradigm described in the previous chapters.
