2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/23/2019 | 12:00 PM - 12:15 PM | ADVANCING URBAN STORMWATER PLANNING THROUGH DESIGN THINKING, POLLUTION LOADING, AND SOCIAL EQUITY METRICS | 150 G

ADVANCING URBAN STORMWATER PLANNING THROUGH DESIGN THINKING, POLLUTION LOADING, AND SOCIAL EQUITY METRICS

Urban stormwater pollution is a widely recognized threat to coastal cities and ecosystems, yet stormwater retrofit planning remains an opportunistic, locally-focused endeavor. We are developing a decision support/prioritization tool that combines the twin issues of stormwater runoff: volume and pollution loading. When combined with social-ecological data, wide-scale adoption of tools such as this can allow better prioritization of urban stormwater investments and lead to more rapid recovery of freshwater and coastal ecosystems, as well as improved access to nature in urban areas. We tackled the social-regulatory and decision-making space using an innovative Design Thinking approach based on interviews with stormwater managers, developers, and architects. Our tool produces a high resolution “heatmap” of pollution loading and hydrologic condition across the Puget Sound region in Washington State. We use data from local urban runoff monitoring programs, land-use, current and future (2080) precipitation, and a 1-m resolution landcover map developed via Google Earth Engine’s AI algorithms. These heatmaps can be used to identify optimal locations for GSI investments with respect to regulatory, community, and ecological priorities.

Aquatic-terrestrial Linkage
Hotspot
Pollution

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Presenters/Authors

Emily Howe (), The Nature Conservancy, emily.howe@tnc.org;