Assessing the Effectiveness of Green Stormwater Infrastructure
Addressing Stormwater Management Goals at the Watershed Scale
Project Description:
The primary goal of this research project was to employ a suite of state-of-the-art hydrologic methods to assess the aggregated, watershed-scale effectiveness of using green stormwater infrastructure as part of new suburban residential development in north-central Howard County, Maryland. The field-based study was conducted over 5½ years (2019-2025) on a small (0.31 mi 2 ) watershed drained by an unnamed tributary to the Little Patuxent River; runoff and water quality responses were monitored through 1) the “pre-GSI” period, 2) the period “during GSI” implementation, and the “post-GSI” period of development. An adjacent watershed (Plumtree Branch, 0.82 mi 2 ), developed using traditional stormwater management, was used as a hydroclimatic control.
Speaker -Dr. Keith N. Eshleman:
Professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and is based at Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg, Maryland. Dr. Eshleman’s research interests are in the areas of watershed and wetlands hydrology; groundwater/surface water interactions; biogeochemical processes in upland and wetland ecosystems; water quality modeling; and ecosystem responses due to natural disturbances, energy development, and land use change. Eshleman’s field-oriented research program has broadly focused on man’s impacts on the hydrologic cycle, specifically on examination of the hydrological effects of acid deposition, forest disturbances, surface mining, shale gas development, urban stormwater management, and peatland drainage and restoration.