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Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices
Authors: Tom Schueler, David Hirschman, Michael Novotney, and Jennifer Zielinski, P.E. of Center for Watershed Protection
The following document is one of eleven urban subwatershed restoration manuals created to provide guidance to those looking for information on what is involved in restoring an urban watershed. This specific manual goes into detail about retrofit practices that are used for urban stormwater.
Creating Coastal Resilience through Community Engagement: A Plan for Lake Taylor
Authors: Samantha Hunt, Kate Green, Candace Craig Prof. Phoebe Crisman, Mengzhe Ye of the University of Virginia
The following document is the final report that was composed by a group of urban planning students from the University of Virginia. These students explored and researched possible solutions that could improve and help manage the stormwater issues within the Lake Taylor community.
A Green Infrastructure Plan for Norfolk: Building resilient Communities
Prepared by the Green Infrastructure Center Inc.
Norfolk’s goal is to be a resilient city and to be able to live with water through incorporation of green infrastructure. The following document discusses the main goals of the city’s plan to achieve this. The city of Norfolk presents data analyses to determine the best locations throughout the city to incorporate their green infrastructure solutions and what solutions should be implemented in certain areas.
Livinig with Water Hampton: A Holistic Approach to Addressing Sea Level Rise and Resiliency
Prepared by Waggonner & Ball Architecture/Environment
The Hampton roads area has had many issues with flooding, rising sea levels, and the impacts of climate change such as higher tides and intensified storm systems. The following document addresses each of these challenges by identifying the specific forces of water that could potentially or are already contributing to these issues and coming up with solutions for each of these forces through research and data analysis. The report discusses numerous solutions that could increase Hampton’s resilience to these pressing environmental issues which in turn will prepare its coastal neighborhoods for the future.
Analysis of Historical and Future Heavy Precipitation
Prepared by Dewberry
This document analyzes historical changes in heavy rainfall frequency and intensity and projects changes in the precipitation-frequency curve for the VIrginia Beach area. Three heavy rainfall events that caused flooding in Virginia Beach during 2016 were also evaluated. The first chapter deals with historical analysis in Annual Maximum Series data, which is the key variable used to develop design rainfall guidance. Data from the Norfolk Airport rain gage shows a 7% per decade increase. Expanding this time period to the 1900s shows a smaller increase of about 3% per decade. Chapter 1 also reveals that the increases are not limited to just Virginia Beach, but to the entirety of the northeastern coastline of the US, indicating that the data can't just be attributed to localized statistical artifacts. Chapter 2 uses downscaled global climate models in order to predict precipitation-frequency curve changes. An intermediate scenario predicts a 5%, while the high scenario predicts 24-27% increase. Chapter 3 analyzes the aforementioned 3 major flood-causing storm events in Virginia Beach. Chapter 4 reviews rainfall design guidance, and concludes that two factors must be investigated in order to update existing guidance: Consistency between historical observations and historical model simulations, and limited uncertainty bounds in future projections. The document concludes that chapters 1 and 2 fulfill these factors and suggest a 20% increase in rainfall intensity. This value represents agrees with both historical and future projections, as it represents an average for the historical values, and a blend of the intermediate and high scenarios for the future projections.
Native Plants for Southeast Virginia Including Hampton Roads Region
Prepared by the Virginia Native Plant Society et al.
The following document is a guide that provides information on native plant species of Southeast Virginia including the Hampton Roads Region. It provided information on each species native range, light requirements, soil requirements, and many other defining characteristics that are helpful in making decisions on what to plant in this area.
Eastern Branch Environmental Restoration Strategy
Prepared by the Eastern Branch Environmental Restoration Strategy Committee
Convened by the Elizabeth River Project
The Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River is often called the “invisible” or lost branch because it is not often used or even noticed, but it flows through Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach. The City of Norfolk has identified a stretch of the river in downtown that may be ideal for restoration and spur interest in restoring additional parts of the river. Goals of this restoration include educating the community to increase awareness, improving public access to the river, engaging the community in environmental stewardship through the River Stars program, establishing a festival celebrating the Eastern Branch, restoring tidal wetlands, restoring vegetated shoreline, restoring native oysters and their habitats, planting native trees, tracking progress with maps and fish surveys, reducing harmful bacteria and excess nutrients by reducing polluted runoff, reducing bacteria and nutrients by addressing septic and other sewage concerns, identifying and addressing legacy sources of PCB contaminants, addressing contaminated sediments, and conducting bottom sampling. Most of these goals are set to be accomplished in stages at 2018 and 2024.
State of the Elizabeth River (Scorecard 2014)
Compiled and Analyzed by Elizabeth River State of the River Steering Committee 2014
Convened by Virginia DEQ and The Elizabeth River Project
The following document is a report that summarizes the overall health of the Elizabeth River which was determined using the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s standard methods and procedures. This report discusses the major improvements, concerns, general trends, places for improvement, and the score of each branch of the Elizabeth River.
Precipitation Extremes and Flood Frequency in a Changing Climate in Southern Virginia
Authors: Venkataramana Sridhar, Parthkumar Modi, Mirza M. Billah, Prasanth Valayamkunnath, and Jonathan L. Goodall
This paper looks at southeastern Virginia precipitation patterns and models to determine the trend in extreme events in the future. This paper concludes that extreme precipitation events will become more frequent in the future. The paper also emphasizes the importance of these extreme events when stormwater measures are being designed.
Norfolk Vision 2100
Compiled by the City of Norfolk, elected and appointed officials, interested residents, and community groups
Norfolk is a coastal city. Even the most conservative sea level rise projections (between 1.6 and 2.6 feet) place 1500 acres of Norfolk underwater, and 27-48% of the city in a high-risk flood zone by 2100. Norfolk Vision 2100 seeks to address coastal resilience and flooding issues stemming from climate change over the long-term. Their resilience strategy is based around 3 goals:
1. Design the coastal community of the future
2. Create economic opportunity by advancing efforts to grow existing and new sectors
3. Advance initiatives to connect communities, deconcentrate poverty, and strengthen neighborhoods.
Sustainable Landscape Maintenance Manual for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Author: Cheryl Corson
This paper details everything involved in establishing a Landscape Maintenance Plan for completed green infrastructure projects so that the remain effective throughout their intended lifetime. This manual includes details on Human Systems, Tools and Working Methods, Natural Systems, Plant Materials, and Hardscapes. Planning and cost evaluation for each of these categories is required in a project’s maintenance plan as described in detail throughout this paper.
Assessing climate change impacts on the reliability of rainwater harvesting systems
Authors: David J. Sample & Jia Liu
Climate change and urban development increases the amount of runoff and the impact of said runoff. Best management practices can be used to lessen the impacts of climate change and urban development. One of these BMPs is rainwater harvesting(RWH) systems. RWH systems have been used to reduce runoff as well as increase water supply. This article performs a study to show the effect of climate change on water supply reliability and runoff catchment reliability of RWH systems. The report predicted an increase in water supply reliability and decrease in runoff catchment reliability in the eastern, northwesteern, and southeastern U.S. It also predicted a decrease in water supply reliability and increase in runoff catchment reliability in the western, southwestern and central U.S. This paper concludes that RWH system designs should take into account the future conditions based on climate change.
Optimizing rainwater harvesting systems for the dual purposes of water supply and runoff capture
Authors: David J. Sample & Jia Liu
Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems recycle and reuse runoff to meet demand. RWH may also provide an additional benefit, runoff reduction or capture. This paper evaluates decentralized RWH systems across a wide range of land uses and locations in
Virginia for water supply and runoff capture, using the Rainwater Analysis and Simulation Program(RASP) model. RASP simulates an RWH system using storage volume, roof area, irrigated area, and indoor nonpotable demand as inputs. A lifecycle cost-benefit model of RWH was developed. Water supply and runoff capture reliability were assessed in each simulation.