Stormwater Harvesting: A Green Concept

 

Everyone can't stop talking about ways to "reduce our footprint" on our planet. Engineers have a unique opportunity to aid in this effort when designing a project and one of those ways is through stormwater harvesting. Historically, stormwater has been collected as quickly as possible and conveyed away from the site. However, with harvesting stormwater, you collect and store the water on the project site, infiltrating as much of the water as possible. This allows the post-development conditions to more closely mimic the pre-development conditions, reduces the size of downstream structures, and treats stormwater as a resource to be utilized rather than a problem to be removed.  It reduces the hydrologic impact of urbanization.

This interactive online course takes a close look at the concept of stormwater harvesting. It describes a process for evaluating site characteristics and developing integrated designs in which water harvesting enhances site efficiency, sustainability, and aesthetics. The course includes reviews of design examples for a subdivision, a commercial site, a public building, and public rights-of-way.