Methods traditionally chosen to remedy to specific stormwater problems are reductionist in approach. That is to say, such methods are driven by specific goals with specific targets to solve specific problems. These methods are often described as "end-of-the-pipe solutions." Unfortunately, our desire to solve specific problems has often resulted in resolutions that simply treat individual symptoms and result in a disjointed system of unrelated stormwater facilities. A less reductive approach is to treat the cause of a problem or make the symptom of a problem irrelevant. What we need to look for is the overall core or structure of many problems or issues to respond with a more holistic approach that creates a system of stormwater management rather than a system for managing stormwater problems.

For example, most stormwater management currently falls under the category of hazard planning. However, stormwater is also a renewable resource that (1) is owned by all, (2) is a result of a natural process, (3) is used as an economic resource, and (4) has an enormous impact on the quality of other ecosystems. There is no reason stormwater cannot be managed as a natural resource. As such, it should be appropriate for the application of comprehensive planning methods that can be designed to derive a set of holistic solutions. Such a comprehensive planning method should include:

1. identification of issues

2. establishment of planning criteria

3. inventory data and information collection

4. analysis of the situation

5. formulation of alternative approaches

6. analysis effects of alternatives

7. evaluation of alternatives

8. selection of recommended alternative

9. plan implementation

10. monitoring and evaluation

Learning to understand and analyze the overall core or structure of stormwater issues, instead of just the problems, and responding with a comprehensive planning approach will allow us to generate appropriate alternatives to remedy common quality-of-life and community issues, as well as basic stormwater objectives. According to Site Engineering for Landscape Architects,

A few examples of alternative stormwater management strategies might help illustrate the intent of developing a more holistic approach. A comprehensive strategy for stormwater management could include:

• a joint approach for controlling increases in runoff peaks, preserving natural infiltration, controlling runoff pollution, and reducing thermal pollution;
• linking together a "treatment train" of measures with functions that complement each other to implement tasks shown above;
• a clustering and combination of stormwater measures to form a vegetated riparian greenway that, together with floodplains and wetlands, form a stream valley and open-space system that structures expansion on the urban fringe and offers secondary benefits by providing a scenic setting for adjacent uses, forming corridors of natural areas for wildlife protection and passive recreation, and separating and screening incompatible uses.

Solving the problem of flood damage by removing the hazard. This way of thinking about reducing repeated flood losses is to recognize that floods are acts of God, while flood damages result from the acts of man. Hence, this means adjusting human occupancy of floodplains so as to utilize most effectively the natural resources of the floodplain while, at the same time, applying feasible and practicable measures for minimizing the detrimental impacts of floods. More often than not, we simply derive solutions to flooding that merely move the flood from one place to another at great expense and often add to the very problems that we were intending to eliminate. If we are going to have floods–and we are–we should design landscapes to absorb and survive floods rather than delude ourselves into believing that we can design landscapes that will stop floods.

Solving a lack of onsite stormwater capacity by transferring capacity within small drainage areas from other sites. Stormwater-capacity transfer is another alternative system, which allows a private or public property owner with excess stormwater capacity to sell or trade that excess capacity to a property owner within a designated area that needs additional stormwater capacity. This concept is similar to the transfer of development rights between properties. Stormwater-capacity transfer systems offer the advantages of recognizing the financial cost and value of stormwater management and financially encouraging zero run by levying a de facto regional stormwater impact fee without creating an additional tax. It encourages greater flexibility and creativity of design solutions, supplements and supports management and retrofitting of existing stormwater facilities, and promotes responsible stormwater management. Models for the development of stormwater-capacity transfer systems can be found in existing transfer-of-development-rights ordinances.

Other examples include:

• Solving the problem of nonpoint-source runoff from parking lots in downtown areas by providing effective mass transportation using a fleet of small alternative-fuel vehicles that will simultaneously address citizens' complaints about inadequate downtown parking facilities and provide better mobility to children and elderly citizens.
• Solving the problem of temporary local lawn flooding by teaching property owners that standing water on their lawns is not a failure of the stormwater system but, rather, proof that their land plays an important part in runoff being successfully managed, such that water is being held back on their land to recharge depleted groundwater and prevent downstream flooding.
• Solving the costly and dangerous problem of multiple poorly managed onsite detention ponds by mandating regional stormwater systems to consolidate the required stormwater efforts of many individual property sites into a few large facilities that can also be used as community park recreation areas.
• Solving industrial cooling and process, irrigation, recreation, and aquaculture water needs by establishing an extended stormwater recycling that conceptually consists of holding and utilizing large amounts of stormwater on a community or regional scale with the additional benefit of cost savings by decreasing the need for culverts and downstream mitigation, groundwater recharge, nonpoint-source pollution control, mitigation of thermal pollution, and reduced water filtration and processing costs.

The "best" BMP is not the one that best solves a specific stormwater problem but that is a method and means for changing our limited perspective, opening up the prospect of viewing stormwater as a resource, and allowing us to consider choosing a mixture of appropriate new alternatives to manage a stormwater opportunity and not just remedy a specific stormwater problem. We need to ask ourselves: What can we look for in a given situation through the introduction of alternative stormwater practices to solve these problems in a holistic way, and how and where can we determine their appropriate use?

Stuart Patton Echols focuses on developing innovative stormwater systems to reduce the negative impact of development. He teaches full-time at West Virginia University while completing his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in environmental design and planning. He also is an adjunct assistant professor at Penn State, working with graduate students in the Center for Watershed Stewardship.

SW - September/October 2002