Designing a Complete Water Sensitive Community through Low Impact Development Practices

拟议的研究将涉及评估低影响开发(LID)系统对河流、河流、池塘和湖泊等接受水系统的影响。这将通过研究和比较主要通过盖子系统管理和处理雨水的新城市化或翻新社区与拥有传统雨水系统(路缘和排水沟、湿雨水管理池塘)的社区来实现。LID系统已成为加拿大整个社区日益明显的基础设施投资，因为市政当局面临着老龄化和昂贵的基础设施、不断增长的城市人口以及与气候变化相关的风险增加的综合影响。尽管对盖子系统的需求不断增长，但人们对盖子项目对接收水的集体影响知之甚少。虽然有几项研究探索了个别和孤立的盖子系统的性能，但关于盖子在邻里或集水区范围内的长期影响的信息很少。这种知识差距的直接影响是有过度设计盖子系统的趋势，并产生成本高昂的设计。尽管研究表明，LID系统为城市流域提供了净效益，但没有普遍接受的方法来评估其在集水区一级的有效性。在雨水行业内，越来越多的人意识到，有很大的空间来优化盖子系统设计，以最大限度地提高城市集水区和接收水的效益。加拿大有机会成为盖子技术和雨水系统设计创新的引领者。

The proposed research will involve the evaluation of the effects of Low Impact Development (LID) systems onreceiving water systems such as streams, rivers, ponds and lakes. This will be achieved by studying andcomparing newly urbanized or retrofitted communities where stormwater is primarily managed and treatedthrough LID systems with communities that possess traditional stormwater systems (curbs and gutters, wetstormwater management ponds). LID systems have become an increasingly visible infrastructure investmentthroughout Canadian communities as municipalities are faced with the combined effects of aging and costlyinfrastructure, growing urban populations, and increased risks associated with climate change. Despite thegrowing demand for LID systems, little is known about the collective influence of LID projects on receivingwaters. Although several studies have explored performance of individual and isolated LID systems, there is adearth of information regarding the long-term implications of LID at the neighbourhood or catchment scale.The immediate effect of this knowledge gap is a tendency to overdesign LID systems and generating costprohibitive designs. Although research suggests that LID systems provide a net benefit to urban watersheds,there is no universally accepted means to evaluate their effectiveness at the catchment-level. Within thestormwater industry there is a growing sense that there is significant room to optimize LID system design tomaximize benefits for urban catchments and receiving waters. There is an opportunity for Canada to become adriver of innovation in LID technology and the design of stormwater systems.