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Purpose/Intent of this website
To show
examples of Low Impact Development (LID) practices in the Richmond region in
order to educate builders, planners, and commissioners who want to better
understand what these stormwater treatment practices are.
What is
Low Impact Development?
“Low
Impact Development (LID) is an innovative stormwater management approach with a
basic principle that is modeled after nature: manage rainfall at the source
using uniformly distributed decentralized micro-scale controls. LID's goal is to
mimic a site's predevelopment hydrology by using design techniques that
infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate, and detain runoff close to its source.”
(Definition from Low Impact Development Center.)
For further descriptions of
the terminology go to definitions.
For more information on LID,
go to
Low Impact Development
Programs.
Why is
Stormwater Important?
Stormwater either enters the ground (absorption) and recharges groundwater,
evaporates into the atmosphere, or flows over land to streams, lakes, rivers,
and other water features. Increasing suburban and urban development has changed
the amount and velocity of stormwater runoff entering streams. Flooding becomes
more frequent and stream life (animal and plant) is hurt by added sediment and
pollution. Meanwhile, groundwater reserves dwindle.
What is
Stormwater Management?
While
earlier construction practices rarely managed the quantity and quality of
stormwater running off-site, today local and state programs deal specifically
with how stormwater is controlled both community-wide and on a site-by-site
basis. For more information about Virginia’s laws regulating stormwater
management, go to
links
to Virginia Stormwater Management legislation and programs.
For information on local environmental and stormwater programs in the Richmond
region, go to
local programs.
Where are
LID Practices in the Richmond Region?
The
Richmond Region is home to several innovative stormwater management practices.
Examples range from a bioretention area for a courthouse built in a field in
Charles City County to a green roof on an existing building in downtown
Richmond. While there are no examples here of a site fully developed with LID,
there are some individual structures and practices. The purpose of this website
is to inform the public about their benefits, and provide developers and
engineers with ideas and contact information to implement similar projects.
Stormwater management is important in this region because we are in the James
River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds. By reducing the amount, speed, and
sediments/pollution in stormwater runoff, the effects of development on water
quality are lessened.
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