water

My experience at StormCon 2016: Part 1 of 3

I recently attended StormCon 2016 in Indianapolis, the national conference and exposition for surface water quality. I also had the opportunity to give a presentation about Cuyahoga SWCD’s stormwater program. For those that are regular followers of our blog you probably have a good idea of what Cuyahoga SWCD is up to. For the next couple of blog entries I will highlight some StormCon presentations that I thought were particularly interesting.

Ten Emerging Stormwater Best Management Practices by Andrew J. Reese of Amec Wheeler Foster.

This presentation was based on an article of the same name written in the July/August 2016 issue of Stormwater magazine. At first glance I thought this would be a presentation about new and innovative BMPs to install ‘in the ground.' In actuality it was so much more.

Andrew begins by recounting past stormwater paradigms. In hindsight these paradigms can, at best, be interpreted as initial best efforts which changed as the course of technology and research evolved; or at worst, uninformed missteps. The reminder of Andrew’s presentation/article discusses how it’s time for stormwater as a profession to “grow up” and mature. Andrew offers 10 themes as guidance for this maturation process. These ten themes focus on approaching stormwater management in a business philosophy.

  • Best Practice #1: System ­Thinking
  • Best Practice #2: Business Thinking
  • Best Practice #3: Water Resource Organizations
  • Best Practice #4: Asset Management
  • Best Practice #5: TBL Thinking
  • Best Practice #5: TBL Thinking
  • Best Practice #7: Innovative Partnerships
  • Best Practice #8: Modified Rate Structures
  • Best Practice #9: Strategic Public Engagement
  • Best Practice #10: Go High Tech As a Policy

Obviously this list without context does not mean much. So, if you are a stormwater professional or interested in seeing stormwater management evolve as a profession I strongly encourage reading Andrew’s full article. Also take a look at an earlier article from 2001 specifically about the past stormwater paradigms.

Please contact Brent Eysenbach at 216/524-6580 or beysenbach(at)cuyahogaswcd.org to discuss these articles further.

Blog Author: Brent Eysenbach, Stormwater Program Coordinator

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