Building capacity in low-impact drainage management through research collaboration

Municipalities often play the principal role in the management of urban stormwater runoff. Dominant approaches involve routing urban stormwater runoff directly to streams, which has negative impacts on waterway health. Alternative management approaches, such as low-impact drainage management, have t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Freshwater science 2015-09, Vol.34 (3), p.1176-1185
Main Authors: Burns, Matthew J., Wallis, Elizabeth, Matic, Vjekoslav
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bioretention areas
Bridges
Design engineering
Engineering
Environmental engineering
Highway engineering
Maintenance costs
Private property
Stormwater
Stormwater management
Stormwater sewer systems
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Summary:Municipalities often play the principal role in the management of urban stormwater runoff. Dominant approaches involve routing urban stormwater runoff directly to streams, which has negative impacts on waterway health. Alternative management approaches, such as low-impact drainage management, have the potential to protect or restore urban streams, but remain rarely used. The Yarra Ranges Council (YRC), a municipality in Melbourne, Australia, collaborated with a team of researchers to construct stormwater-harvesting schemes, infiltration systems, and other measures (e.g., low-flow filters for water-quality treatment), as part of a catchment-scale experiment on low-impact drainage management. We held a workshop to elicit views of staff across a range of departments on insights gained from the experiment. We also gathered information on the design and construction of works to support findings from the workshop. Over time, research collaboration increased the capacity of YRC in low-impact drainage management. This increased capacity was linked to the temporary assignment of one of the researchers to work in the municipality’s engineering department. The researcher increased the confidence and trust of YRC in the use of new stormwater-management technologies. This temporary assignment into YRC helped support the long-term nature of the collaboration, which built trust over time. Our results support the views of scholars that civil experimentation can improve the capacity of municipalities to implement alternative approaches to urban stormwater management, with the aim of protecting or restoring streams.
ISSN:2161-9549
2161-9565
DOI:10.1086/682565