Low-impact development practices for stormwater management

Meeting EPA’s stormwater runoff requirements doesn’t have to bust the budget. To help home builders toward this effort, the NAHB Research Center has developed its “Low Impact Development Practices for Storm Water Management,” a set of cost-effective best practices to address stormwater management through site design.

Basic LID strategies for handling runoff are to reduce the volume of runoff and decentralize flows, according to NAHB RC. This is usually best accomplished by creating a series of smaller retention/detention areas that allow localized filtration (rather than carrying runoff to a remote collection area) in conjunction with facilities addressing larger storm events as required. Common methods include:

• Bio-retention cells
• Vegetated swales
• Filter strips
• Disconnected impervious areas
• Cistern collection systems

For the full report, visit: http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Sitework/low-impact-development.