Collaborative Research: Reimagining Urban Watershed Management: A Systems Approach to Stormwater Control and Ecological Rehabilitation

预计越来越多的更大和更密集的城市将对全世界的河流生态系统产生更强大和更普遍的压力。城市化导致更多的雨水径流，这可能导致一系列生态损害，这些损害被统称为“城市河流综合征”（USS）。因此，雨水控制是保护和恢复城市水道的核心，但雨水管理在很大程度上优先考虑社会关注的目标，如防洪和保护基础设施，而不是考虑接收沃茨的生态功能。因此，在“解决综合征”方面进展甚微。该项目旨在通过设计和展示一种系统的方法来改造城市径流的管理方式，以便对高地进行干预，恢复河流中的生态条件。预计这项工作将产生基本的技术和概念进步，以实现急需的下一代雨水基础设施，解决美国国家工程院提出的恢复和改善城市基础设施的重大挑战。该项目可以实质性地改善美国和国外的地表沃茨的状况。根据美国环保署的数据，城市径流是美国超过49，000英里河流和溪流的可能损害来源，这一惊人的数字说明了创新雨水管理解决方案的潜在影响。该项目的目标是通过建立一个恢复和保护地表沃茨的新框架，为改变城市径流的管理方式奠定基础。该项目将把雨水径流重新定义为一个环境流动问题，可以通过将传统的雨水基础设施升级为能够适应性地满足生态和监管目标的网络物理“智能雨水”系统来解决。生物沼泽，湿池塘）没有提供USS的纠正措施。这导致越来越多地倡导将业务转向流域范围的雨水干预协调，并从概念上转向通过环境流动的透镜来看待城市雨水管理。传感器和控制的最新进展现在允许雨水基础设施作为一个“智能”系统来管理径流如何以及何时排入接收流，提供前所未有的机会（重新）建立所需的流量制度的基础上，一组多个目标。在这个项目中，目标是确定和演示如何雨水系统可以调整，以实现环境流量作为一个目标函数，以满足生态和监管目标。该项目将结合联合收割机模型参数化和模拟与经验测试，以评估是否实现环境流量（1）是可能的使用“智能雨水”的方法;（2）改变生态系统的属性和功能在城市河流;如果是这样的话，（3）消除损伤的USS的特点。这将需要（1）确定和定义城市流域的生态信息绩效目标;（2）使用系统方法来优化利用可控出口和自适应控制算法的雨水干预措施;以及（3）在两个实验测试台上实证展示和评估站点和系统级智能雨水管理。该项目还将通过教育伙伴关系进行公共宣传。该项目团队将继续与田纳西州诺克斯县学校合作，举办一年两次的“遇见小溪”公民科学活动，为学生提供机会，了解城市化对溪流的影响和雨水控制的自动化，以及收集支持K-12课程目标的溪流条件的物理和生物数据。此外，这项研究的各个方面将被纳入研究人员在各自机构教授的专题课程，包括关于生态恢复和工程课程的研究生研讨会，重点是建模和分析。该项目将通过让来自代表性不足群体的学生参与进来，帮助推进STEM领域的多样性、公平性和包容性，这些学生将通过UTK多样性项目工程办公室等组织招募，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估来支持。影响审查标准。

It is expected that a greater number of larger and denser cities will manifest more potent and pervasive pressures on stream ecosystems worldwide. Urbanization leads to greater stormwater runoff, which can result in a slate of ecological impairments that collectively have been identified as the “urban stream syndrome” (USS). Stormwater control is thus central to protecting and rehabilitating urban waterways, but stormwater management has largely prioritized objectives motivated by societal concerns, like flood control and protecting infrastructure, over consideration of ecological functions in receiving waters. Consequently, little progress has made towards ‘solving the syndrome’. This project aims to transform how urban runoff is managed by designing and demonstrating a systems approach to upland interventions to rehabilitate in-stream ecological conditions. The expectation is that the work will yield fundamental technological and conceptual advances to realize much-needed next generation stormwater infrastructure, addressing the grand challenge laid out by the National Academy of Engineering to Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure. The project could substantively improve the condition of surface waters across the US and abroad. According to the US EPA, urban runoff is the probable source of impairment for over 49,000 miles of rivers and streams that have been assessed in the US, a staggering number that illustrates the potential impact of innovative stormwater management solutions. It is the goal of the project to provide the foundation for transforming how urban runoff is managed by creating a new framework for rehabilitating and protecting surface waters. The project will recast stormwater runoff as an environmental flows problem that can be addressed by upgrading traditional stormwater infrastructure into cyber-physical ‘smart stormwater’ systems capable of adaptively meeting ecological and regulatory objectives.Static and decentralized replacement of grey stormwater infrastructure with green alternatives (e.g., bioswales, wet ponds) has not provided corrective remedies of USS. This has led to increasing advocacy for operational shifts towards basin-scale coordination of stormwater interventions and conceptual shifts towards viewing urban stormwater management through the lens of environmental flows. Recent advances in sensors and controls now allow stormwater infrastructure to be operated as a ‘smart’ system for managing how and when runoff is discharged into a receiving stream, affording unprecedented opportunities to (re)establish desired flow regimes based on a set of multiple objectives. In this project, the target is to determine and demonstrate how stormwater systems can be tuned to achieve environmental flows as an objective function to meet ecological and regulatory goals. The project will combine model parameterization and simulations with empirical tests, with the aim of assessing whether achieving environmental flows (1) is possible using a ‘smart stormwater’ approach; (2) alters ecosystem attributes and functioning in urban streams; and if so, (3) alleviates impairments characteristic of USS. This will entail (1) identifying and defining ecologically-informed performance objectives for urban watersheds; (2) using a systems approach to optimize stormwater interventions that leverage controllable outlets and adaptive control algorithms; and (3) empirically demonstrating and evaluating site- and system-level smart stormwater management at two experimental testbeds. The project also will also pursue public outreach through educational partnerships. The project team will continue to work with Tennessee's Knox County Schools to host biannual “Meet the Creek” citizen science events that offer students opportunities to learn about the effects of urbanization on streams and automation of storm water control, as well as collect physical and biological data on in-stream conditions that will support K-12 curricular goals. Additionally, aspects of this study will be integrated into topical courses taught by the investigators at their respective institutions, including a graduate seminar on ecological restoration and engineering courses focusing on modeling and analytics. The project will help advance diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM fields by involving students from underrepresented groups, who will be recruited through organizations like the UTK Engineering Office of Diversity Programs, and will afford excellent opportunities for graduate education and career advancement.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.