Spring 2013 Water Seminar Series - "Adaptive Governance of Urban Watersheds"

Current consent decree settlements for violations of the Clean Water Act (1972) increasingly include provisions for redress of combined sewer overflow activity through hybrid approaches that incorporate the best of both gray (high-rate treatment plants, storage tunnels, etc.) and green infrastructure techniques (e.g., rain gardens, rain barrels, pervious pavement systems). Adaptive management is an environmental management strategy that uses an iterative process of decision-making to reduce the uncertainty in environmental management via system monitoring. A central tenet of adaptive management is that management involves a learning process that can help regulated communities achieve environmental quality objectives. We are using an adaptive management approach to guide a green infrastructure retrofit of a neighborhood block located in the Slavic Village Development Corporation area (Cleveland, Ohio). We are in the process of  gathering hydrologic and ecosystem services data on two neighborhood blocks (control and treatment). We will then use this data as a basis for collaboration with area citizens on a plan to use green infrastructure to contain stormflows on the treatment block. Monitoring data will provide researchers with feedback on the impact of green infrastructure implementation and suggest where improvements can be made.