CAREER: Toward Sustainable Urban Water Management through a Twofold Approach: Enhanced Landscape Modeling and Strategic Spatial Placement of Stormwater Control Measures

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1553475HathawayGlobal population in urban areas is burgeoning, and sustainable development and water management are critical to ensuring ecological and human health. This CAREER research proposes an innovative, twofold approach to urban watershed management. The approach is predicated on improved landscape modeling at both the site and watershed scales, and the use of geospatial techniques to target and treat those areas that contribute most to surface water degradation. The nature of the proposed approach integrates sensor technology, geospatial tools, and modeling to inform the design and optimization of the placement of green infrastructure in urban systems.As healthy waterways are increasingly valued, and the degradation of these waterways by urban stormwater runoff is better understood. Major efforts are underway to restore watershed function across the United States. With these efforts largely relying on coarse runoff models and empirical approaches for green infrastructure implementation, there is a dire need for improved approaches to watershed restoration. Watershed restoration efforts are often undertaken without an understanding of potential impacts. The central hypothesis in this CAREER proposal is that impervious areas within urban watersheds differ in their contribution to stormwater generation and transport based on their spatial configuration. Thus, restoration approaches that target the most impactful impervious areas will result in optimized environmental outcomes. The research topic will address deficiencies that seriously limiti the effectiveness of stormwater control measure strategies that can manage stormwater and mitigate the impact on watersheds. Specific objectives are to: (1) use sensor technology to characterize bioretention cell function and inform improvement and parameterization of a site scale model, (2) couple site scale and watershed scale models to better understand cumulative green infrastructure effects, (3) use a globally unique experimental watershed to test the coupled model, (4) compare opportunistic green infrastructure site selection to geospatially informed approaches using the same experimental watershed, and, (5) integrate outcomes into a long lasting educational plan spanning multiple target groups. Through an integrated research and teaching program, the principle investigator (PI) will become a leading contributor to sustainable urban water management in the United States and globally. The improved landscape modeling and placement methodology are transformative because they establish a scientific understanding of the factors controlling the efficacy of stormwater control measures at different geospatial scales. These will form the basis for elevating their implementation to a rational engineering approach in optimized locations. The coupled model will allow scenario development and testing prior to implementation, facilitating optimization of approaches and realistic expectations. As green infrastructure increasingly becomes a core component of watershed restoration approaches, optimizing its placement to achieve maximum outcomes is critical. For example, estimates of implementing stormwater improvements to reduce nutrients in the Chesapeake Bay alone are in the billions. These efforts can be maximized by allowing scenario development and testing prior to implementation. The research program presented herein will integrate with the PI's long-term educational objective of increasing the understanding of watershed hydrologic and water quality processes at multiple levels of targeted groups, from K-12 to the general public, specifically targeting underrepresented individuals. The PI proposes creating a bioretention facility at a local high school through the USFS grant for educational purposes to track tree growth as a function of design configurations. This will be a good learning environment for the University of Tennessee undergrad and grad students. Outreach to 4-5 high schools that have or will have bioretention facilities is impressive. These will be equipped with pressure transducers, soil moisture sensors, rain gages, and climate sensor arrays. Teachers will be educated on the use of the sensors and aided in the development of lessons plans that integrate the sensors into lessons on developing graphics, statistics, and other learning goals.