Summary
Students are introduced to innovative stormwater management
strategies that are being used to restore the hydrology and water
quality of urbanized areas to pre-development conditions.
Collectively called green infrastructure (GI) and low-impact
development (LID) technologies, they include green roofs and
vegetative walls, bioretention or rain gardens, bioswales, planter
boxes, permeable pavement, urban tree canopy, rainwater
harvesting, downspout disconnection, green streets and alleys, and
green parking. These approaches differ from the traditional
centralized stormwater collection system with the idea of handling
stormwater at its sources, resulting in many environmental,
economic and societal benefits. A PowerPoint presentation
provides photographic examples, and a companion file gives
students the opportunity to sketch in their ideas for using the
technologies to make improvements to 10 real-world design
scenarios.
Engineering Connection
Green infrastructure and low-impact development are decentralized
stormwater management strategies that provide on-site water
quantity and water quality treatment. These systems utilize
physical, chemical and biological principles to improve the water
quality of urban stormwater runoff. Under natural conditions (pre-
development), stormwater runoff has unabated access to the soil
surface. This stormwater runoff recharges the groundwater supply
and provides a certain level of stormwater cleansing, improving the
long-term security of drinking water supplies and supporting
ecosystem function. Green infrastructure is considered a new
technology and significant civil and environmental engineering
research is underway. Engineers are taking a look at how nature
naturally manages stormwater and nutrients and conducting
research to understand how to best design, install and maintain
these systems over their anticipated lifespans.
Educational Standards
Florida: Science
International Technology and Engineering Educators
Association: Technology
Next Generation Science Standards: Science
Learning Objectives
After this lesson, students should be able to:
Describe the guiding principles of green infrastructure and low-
impact development.
Explain the advantages of green infrastructure and low-impact
development technologies compared to traditional stormwater
infrastructure.
Select location-appropriate green infrastructure and low-impact
development technologies.
Introduction/Motivation
Today we will discuss green infrastructure and low-impact
development, which are beneficial technologies that provide controls
for water quantity (volume) and water quality (treatment) of
stormwater runoff within urban watersheds. The guiding principle of
low-impact development (LID) is to manage water resources at their
sources, that is, where the rain falls, and where it would go without
human influence. Green infrastructure (GI) is a type of LID that uses
natural systems to manage stormwater runoff in a decentralized
fashion, typically receiving stormwater from areas less than two
acres in size, and preferably less than one acre.
Green infrastructure systems are sustainable solutions to the
traditional centralized stormwater treatment. The most well-known
definition of sustainable development was introduced in the
Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987), "Sustainable development is
development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs." To achieve sustainable development, three pillars of
sustainability must be addressed: 1) environment, 2) social and 3)
economic. Sometimes this is referred to as the "triple bottom line."
From an environmental perspective, green infrastructure increases
groundwater, provides natural stormwater management, reduces
energy usage, improves water quality, and increases natural habitat.
Social aspects to consider are the beautification and increase in
recreational opportunities, improved health through cleaner air and
water, and improved psychological well-being.
Economic concerns that are met range from reduced future costs of
stormwater management to increasing property values and local
tourism. (Katzenmoyer, 2013)
Lesson Background and Concepts for Teachers
Lesson Overview
Present the GI and LID Technologies Presentation (a
PowerPoint file) using the slide narration content provided
below.
At the same time as the main presentation, project on the
classroom board the GI and LID Technologies Design
Scenarios(also a PowerPoint file), which is intended to
engage students in selecting and sketching their designs for
location-appropriate GI and LID technologies as they are
covered in the presentation. After each technology is
introduced in the presentation, refer to the coordinated design
scenario slide and direct students to use chalk or whiteboard
markers to draw in their design plans, applying the GI and LID
technologies. You may want to tape large pieces of paper or
poster board to the classroom board in order to capture the
designs. If no second projector is available, or as an alternative
way to do this, print out the design scenarios file as a multi-
page handout and have teams use colored markers to sketch
in their GI and LID designs over the 10 design scenarios.
Slide Narration for Green Infrastructure and Low-Impact
Development Technologies Presentation (Slide 1) Traditional
stormwater management practices focus on centralized systems.
These systems are designed to capture and attenuate a specified
volume (quantity) of water from large areas, typically 10 to 100
acres, at which they adequately perform. They also provide a level
of treatment (quality) based on a one-size fits all approach, a
method that is less reliable at targeting specific pollutants of
concern.
A low-impact development approach to stormwater management is
typically applied to areas less than 2 acres and favorably less than 1
acre, treating stormwater at the sites, in a decentralized fashion
(Passeport, 2009). Instead of treating an entire neighborhood, these
systems are designed to capture stormwater runoff from a handful
of homes. This approach manages nutrients (quality) and volume
(quantity) of stormwater runoff on-site as a result of increased
infiltration and reduction in stormwater runoff.
The following green infrastructure and low-impact development
technologies will be addressed in the lesson: green roofs and
vegetative walls, bioretention or rain gardens, bioswales, planter
boxes, permeable pavement, urban tree canopy, rainwater
harvesting, downspout disconnection, green streets and alleys, and
green parking.
(Slide 2) This table provides a list of green infrastructure practices
and a summary of the benefits that GI can offer. Source of the image
is a The Value of Green Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing Its
Economic, Environmental and Social Benefits by the Center for
Neighborhood Technology and American Rivers. (See the Additional
Multimedia Support section for the link to this PDF document.)
(Slide 3) Green roofs and vegetative walls are rooftops or sides
of buildings that are planted with a media membrane and native
vegetation over a waterproofing membrane/root zone barrier, which
may include a drainage and irrigation system. The depth of media
defines two categories of green roofs: extensive green roofs typically
have media layers between two and six inches, while intensive
green roofs usually have media layers greater than six inches.
Green roofs and vegetative walls reduce environmental and human
health impacts as a result of reduced stormwater runoff, a reduction
in energy use, and an improvement of air quality. These benefits are
obtained through the absorption and evapotranspiration of plant and
media within the green roof system boundaries, an increase in
insulation, reduction in the amount of solar radiation reaching the
roof surface, and cooling effect due to evaporation on the media
surface, reducing roof temperatures. Vegetation also takes up air
pollutants and intercepts particulate matter, leading to improved air
quality. Additional benefits include reduction in atmospheric CO 2,
reduced urban heat island effect, improvement in community
livability, improved habitat, and the opportunity for public education
and outreach.
Green
roofs are a component of Seattle's green stormwater infrastructure
strategy in higher density neighborhoods (left). This native plant rain
garden filters water from a Denver parking lot before it reaches the
storm drain.
copyright
(Slide 4) Bioretention, or rain gardens, are typically constructed
with high-permeability media consisting of soil, sand and organic
matter, designed to maximize infiltration, improve water quality,
promote vegetative growth and biological transformation processes.
These systems are designed with a storage volume capacity, allow
for overflow and exfiltration/underdrain.
Rain gardens are ideally constructed in areas where stormwater
collects, typically adjacent to roof runoff and impervious areas such
as streets, parking lots and driveways. Benefits include improved
local aesthetics, and the ability to trap and treat silts, fine particles,
nutrients, heavy metals and bacteria from impacting downstream
ecosystems. These systems have been shown to increase property
values, taxable revenue to local municipalities, biodiversity and
habitat, provide groundwater recharge, reduce the quantity of
potable water utilized for outdoor irrigation, reduce carbon dioxide
emissions through direct carbon sequestration, minimize urban heat
island effect, and provide sites for community outreach.
(Slide 5) Bioswales may be vegetated, mulched or xeriscaped
linear channels that provide stormwater retention and infiltration.
Bioswales are a linear form of a bioretention system with a length-
to-width ratio greater than 2:1, typical of standard bioretention
construction. They are designed as an alternative to traditional
stormwater piping, integrated into parking lots and road medians. A
xeriscaped landscape is designed in a way that limits or eliminates
the need for irrigation. A stormwater
planter in the sidewalk area manages street and sidewalk runoff.
copyright
(Slide 6) Planter boxes are urban bioretention systems with
vertical concrete walls designed to collect and retain a specified
volume of stormwater runoff. A typical design collects stormwater
runoff from sidewalks, parking lots and/or streets within the
boundary of city owned property. These planter boxes may have an
open or closed bottom allowing for percolation, exfiltration and
evapotranspiration.
(Slide 7) Permeable pavement surfaces are similar to sidewalks
and roadways, but dissimilar to those surfaces because they are
able to absorb and infiltrate stormwater runoff through their
materials to underlying media layers. Several different types of
permeable pavement exist, including pervious or porous concrete,
porous asphalt and interlocking permeable pavers. These systems
are typically designed for pedestrian low-volume vehicle traffic areas
such as parking lots, driveways and sidewalks. Permeable pavement
surfaces do not have the same strength as traditional concrete and
thus are limited to areas that do not receive constant traffic.
Permeable pavement reduces stormwater runoff by allowing the
underlying media layer to infiltrate and percolate stormwater runoff.
This lets treatment mechanisms happen at the source, and helps to
increase groundwater recharge. In cold weather climates, this
technology reduces the formation of a frost layer, mitigating the
need for salt use and reducing allocation of municipality money
dedicated to de-icing roadways. Also, a reduction in energy use has
been demonstrated due to a reduction in the urban heat island
effect.
A
Chicago alley that experienced frequent flooding was reconstructed
with porous pavers so that it no longer retains water.
copyright
(Slide 8) The planting and protection of an urban tree
canopy provides many social, ecological and economic benefits.
These include interception of rainfall and runoff, an increased
infiltration and soil storage capacity within the media layers,
increased evapotranspiration rates, the ability to support biological
communities within root zones or rhizospheres. The urban tree
canopy can also significantly reduce residential heating and cooling
costs by providing shade and by acting as a windbreak. The canopy
also provides a reduction in air pollution contaminants such as
nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone, as well as increasing
habitat for many species.
(Slide 9) Rainwater harvesting includes the capturing and
storing of rainwater within cisterns or rain barrels to be used for
onsite irrigation, toilet flushing, car washing or any other later use.
By reducing the volume of water leaving a site from impervious
surfaces, you reduce the mass of pollutants entering the receiving
downstream ecosystems, restoring the health and vitality of the
local watershed. These systems are also extremely effective in arid
climates by reducing the dependency on limited water supplies.
The vegetation in and around this Fargo, ND, parking lot catches all
stormwater runoff and filters it. Rain barrels catch roof runoff for use
to water nearby plants and trees.
copyright
(Slide 10) Downspout disconnection is the process of redirecting
roof runoff away from traditional storm sewer collection systems to
rain gardens, bioswales, planter boxes, and other GI technologies
on-site. These systems allow for infiltration, improved water quality
and treatment efficiency on-site and at the source of runoff. Shown
to reduce directly connected impervious areas (DCIA) by 40-44%.
(Salim, 2002)
(Slide 11) Green streets and alleys refers to the integration of
permeable pavement, bioswales, planter boxes, bioretention and
native vegetation into the urban streetscape. These systems are
designed to store storm event volume, promote evapotranspiration
and biogeochemical processes. Benefits of green streets are
equivalent to the benefits of green infrastructure and low-impact
development. Green streets combine the principles of GI and LID
into a product that can be implemented into the urban landscape.
(Slide 12) Parking lots have low traffic volume, high impervious
area and vegetative islands, making them great locations to
implement green infrastructure design. Green parking refers to the
use of GI technologies in parking lotsmost commonly pervious
pavement, porous concrete, interlocking pavers, rain gardens,
bioswales and tree canopies.
Vocabulary/Definitions
attenuation : To retain a specified quantity of stormwater from a storm event.
bioretention: A rain garden typically constructed with high-permeability media consisting of
soil, sand and organic matter, designed to maximize infiltration, improve water
quality, promote vegetative growth and biological transformation processes.
bioswale: A vegetated, mulched or xeriscaped linear channel that provides stormwater
retention and infiltration.
downspout The process of redirecting roof runoff away from traditional storm sewer
disconnection: collection systems to rain gardens, bioswales, planter boxes and other on-site
GI technologies.
extensive: Green roof and vegetative walls media layer between 2 to 6 inches.
green A type of LID that uses natural systems to manage stormwater runoff in a
infrastructure: decentralized fashion, typically receiving stormwater from areas less than 2
acres. Abbreviated as GI.
green parking: A parking area that utilizes the principles of GI and LID.
green roof: A rooftop planted with a media membrane and native vegetation over a
waterproofing membrane/root zone barrier.
green streets and The integration of permeable pavement, bioswales, planter boxes, bioretention
alleys: and native vegetation into an urban streetscape.
intensive: Green roof and vegetative walls media layer greater than 6 inches.
low-impact To manage water resources at their sources (that is, where the rain falls, and
development: where it would go without human influence). Abbreviated as LID.
nutrients: Major chemical compounds derived from nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
that plants need to survive.
particulate A complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets.
matter:
permeable A surface that is similar to sidewalks and roadways in terms of allowing
pavement: vehicular traffic, but dissimilar due to its ability to absorb and infiltrate
stormwater runoff through its surface to underlying media layers.
planter box: An urban bioretention system with vertical concrete walls designed to collect
and retain a specified volume of stormwater runoff.
ponding zone: Rainfall runoff collection area.
rainwater The capturing and storing of rainwater within cisterns or rain barrels to be used
harvesting: for on-site irrigation, toilet flushing car washing or any other later use.
storage volume: The volume of water capable of being stored within a GI or LID system.
stormwater A measure of the pollution collected from pervious and impervious surfaces
quality: from stormwater runoff during a storm event.
stormwater The volume of water from stormwater runoff.
quantity:
Associated Activities
Just Breathe Green: Measuring Transpiration Rates - Students
are given the materials to see something that is otherwise
invisible to themplants breathing. In a multi-trial experiment,
they put small native plants under plastic domes and measure
the condensation over time. Then they calculate and graph the
rates at which the plants breathetheir transpiration rates
and compare transpiration rates among different plant species.
Does Media Matter? Infiltration Rates and Storage Capacities -
Students gain a basic understanding of the properties of media
such as soil, sand, compost and gravel, and how these
properties affect the movement of water
(infiltration/percolation) into and below the surface of the
ground. They test each type of material, determining storage
capacity, field capacity and infiltration rates. Then teams apply
the testing results to the design their own material mixes that
best meet the design requirements.
Making "Magic" Sidewalks of Pervious Pavement - Students use
everyday building materialssand, pea gravel, cement and
waterto create and test pervious pavement. Groups are
challenged to create their own pervious pavement mixes,
experimenting with material ratios to evaluate how infiltration
rates change with different mix combinations.
A Guide to Rain Garden Construction - Students are presented
with a guide to rain garden construction in an activity that
culminates the unit and pulls together what they have learned
and prepared in materials during the three previous associated
activities. They learn about the four vertical zones that make
up a typical rain garden. Then groups each create personal rain
gardens planted with native species that can be installed on
the school campus, in the community, or at students' homes to
provide a solution for flooding areas.
Attachments
GI and LID Technologies Presentation (pptx)
GI and LID Technologies Presentation (pdf)
GI and LID Technologies Design Scenarios (pptx)
GI and LID Technologies Design Scenarios (pdf)
Assessment
Pre-Lesson Assessment
Questions: Sustainable development is most commonly defined as
meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs. (WCED, 1987) The
three pillars of sustainability are the environment, economy and
society, referred to the triple bottom line.
Come up with several ideas of how stormwater management
can address the three pillars of sustainability. (Example
answer: Protect the environment, create jobs and benefit the
community.)
What is a rain garden? Describe it in your own words. (Example
answers: A rain garden is a natural system used for collecting
stormwater runoff. A rain garden uses plant roots and soil to
soak up rain.)
Lesson Embedded Assessment
GI and LID Design Sketching: Before starting the GI and LID
Technologies Presentation, divide the class into groups of two to
three students each. After each slide in the presentation, refer
students to the coordinated slide in the GI and LID Technologies
Design Scenarios (also a PowerPoint file) projected on the
classroom board. Have groups discuss and free draw on paper their
ideas for possible solutions to each real-world scenario and come to
a consensus on the best solution. Have the students debate the pros
and cons of their design solutions to form a class consensus and
sketch on the board the GI and LID solution they would use for each
of the 10 urban environment scenarios. Ask and discuss why
students would choose to use certain plant types over others and
where they would place them. Example plant options might include
native vs. non-native, wetland vs. upland or terrestrial, tree vs.
shrub, vegetables vs. bees and butterflies). Also, discuss the
benefits of each green infrastructure and low-impact development
improvement and how it relates to the three pillars of sustainability
(environment, economy, society). This process engages students in
selecting and sketching on images of real-world scenarios their
designs for location-appropriate solutions as they are introduced and
described in the presentation. (If no second projector is available, or
as an alternative way to do this, print out the design scenarios file
as a multi-page handout and have teams use colored markers to
sketch in their GI and LID designs over the 10 design scenarios.)
Review students' designs see if they incorporate location-
appropriate GI and LID technologies in order to gauge their
comprehension of the lesson's stormwater management concepts.
Post-Lesson Assessment
Wrap-Up Questions: Conclude the lesson by asking students the
following questions, in either class discussion format or as individual
writing assignments.
You are an engineer and advisor to the local city council. The
city council has requested your expertise in selecting locations
appropriate for permeable pavement such as porous concrete,
porous asphalt and pervious interlocking pavers. What areas
within the city would you recommend? (Answer: Recommend
use of these permeable pavement materials for low-volume
traffic areas such as parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, bike
paths, outdoor basketball courts, amphitheaters and
pedestrian walking malls throughout the urban environment.
Discourage implementation in high traffic areas and areas
where heavy trucks travel.)
What are the guiding principles of green infrastructure and low-
impact development? (Answer: The guiding principles of these
technologies are to manage stormwater at its sources using
natural means and to establish conditions so that hydrology
and water quality of developed sites approach that of
undeveloped sites.)
What are the environmental and human health benefits of
green roofs and vegetative walls? Answer: Benefits include the
reduction in quantity of pollution entering downstream
ecosystems due to a reduction in stormwater runoff, a
reduction in energy use due to an increased insulation factor,
an improvement in air quality due to plant species' abilities to
take up air pollutants and intercept particulate matter, and an
increase in community livability.)
Describe ideal locations to construct a rain garden. (Answer:
Rain gardens are ideally constructed in areas where
stormwater collects, typically adjacent to roof runoff and
impervious surfaces, such as streets, parking lots and
driveways.)
What are the advantages of GI and LID compared to traditional
stormwater infrastructure practices? (Answer: By reducing the
volume of water leaving a site from impervious surfaces, you
reduce the mass of pollutants entering receiving downstream
ecosystems, restoring the health and vitality of the local
watershed. Traditional stormwater practices capture
stormwater from large watersheds and provide water quality
and quantity attenuation at centralized locations. This
concentrates the pollutants over a smaller area, making it
harder for natural systems to provide high stormwater quality
removal efficiency. GI and LID practices allow for the
stormwater to infiltrate at the source, restoring the natural
hydrology of the developed site compared to traditional
stormwater infrastructure that provides limited infiltration and
releases the stormwater into downstream surface water
ecosystems.)
Additional Multimedia Support
An excellent online resource (including photograph examples) for
the technologies introduced in this lesson is The Value of Green
Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental
and Social Benefits by the Center for Neighborhood Technology and
American Rivers, available at http://www.cnt.org/repository/gi-
values-guide.pdf.
Another excellent online resource (including photos) is the U.S.
EPA's What Is Green Infrastructure? Website, at
http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/gi_what.cfm.
A source for many good installation photographs of GI and LID
technologies at the U.S. EPA's "Green Infrastructure: LID and GI in
the Semi-Arid West" at http://www2.epa.gov/region8/green-
infrastructure.
References
Collins, K. A., Lawrence, T. J., Stander, E. K., Jontos, R. J., Kaushal, S.
S., Newcomer, T. A., .and Ekberg, M. L. C. (2010). Opportunities and
challenges for managing nitrogen in urban stormwater: A review and
synthesis. Ecological Engineering, 36(11), 1507-1519. doi:
10.1016/j.ecoleng.2010.03.015
Dietz, M. E. (2007). Low-impact development practices: A review of
current research and recommendations for future directions.Water
Air and Soil Pollution, 186(1-4), 351-363. doi: 10.1007/s11270-007-
9484-z
Holman-Dodds, J. K., Bradley, A. A., and Potter, K. W. (2003).
Evaluation of hydrologic benefits of infiltration based urban storm
water management. Journal of the American Water Resources
Association, 39(1), 205-215. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-
1688.2003.tb01572.x
Katzenmoyer, C., Marengo, B. G., Potts, A., and Finneran, C. (2013).
Going green to save green The City of Lanacaster, PA, develops an
integrated green infrastructure plan to reduce CSOs and stormwater
and nutrient runoff. Water Environment & Technology-WEFTEC,
V25,N4.
Passeport, E., Hunt, W. F., Line, D. E., Smith, R. A., and Brown, R. A.
(2009). Field Study of the Ability of Two Grassed Bioretention Cells to
Reduce Storm-Water Runoff Pollution. Journal of Irrigation and
Drainage Engineering-Asce, 135(4), 505-510. doi: 10.1061/
(asce)ir.1943-4774.0000006
Salim, Imad, Rabbaig, M., Grazioli, M.. Igwe, A., Sherrill, J. (2002)
"Demonstration of Downspout Disconnection
Effectiveness."Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation,
WEF/CWEA Collection Systems 2002, pp. 65-76(12).
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/wef/wefproc/2002/0000200
2/00000006/art00004
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED; aka
Brundtland Commission), United Nations. Our Common Future. (aka
Brundtland Report). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN
019282080X. http://conspect.nl/pdf/Our_Common_Future-
Brundtland_Report_1987.pdf
Contributors
Ryan Locicero, Maya Trotz, Krysta Porteus, Jennifer Butler, William
Zeman, Brigith Soto
