Waterwise Landscaping
Authored by Penny Livingston and Leilanie Bruce
Low Impact Development (LID) is an innovative rainwater and stormwater management approach that seeks solutions that model nature, specifically hydrological functions and geographic contours. This approach supports managing rainfall at the source. The object is to use site design techniques that store, infiltrate, filter, evaporate and detain runoff in order to mimic imitate a site's pre-development hydrology by using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate and detain runoff close to its source. A goal of LID is to use site and subdivision design techniques in coordination with stormwater management engineering to mimic the hydrologic conditions associated with an undeveloped site. In a healthy undeveloped landscape with porous soil, water naturally infiltrates into the ground, recharging ground water hydrology. Drought tolerant landscaping or xeriscaping, infiltration basins or rain gardens, and green roofs or living roofs are key LID strategies for achieving conditions associated with healthy undeveloped landscapes.
To learn more about Low Impact Development, please visit our Stormwater Section.
LID strategies use natural drainage features like swales and vegetation to reduce the required amount of materials in paving roads and driveways to install curbs, gutters and piping.
Green roofs provide green space from which urban and suburban areas can benefit. They reduce stormwater runoff by harnessing the water retention abilities of the vegetation.
A green, vegetated, or living roof is an innovative stormwater management solution for absorbing water and reducing runoff during light rain events. It also helps reduce the temperature in hot cities on hot days by reducing the "heat island effect," The heat island effect refers to the occurrence of increasing ambient temperatures on hot days in urban areas due to the concentration of reflective or light colored surfaces (or albedo from roofs, walls, roads, parking lots, etcetera) that reflect the sun's heat back into the air.
In addition to reducing and filtering stormwater runoff and increasing groundwater recharge, rain gardens provide many other benefits:
A basic Low Impact Development strategy for handling stormwater runoff is to reduce the volume and speed of moving water. When infiltrating water follow the immortal words of Brock Dolman, "Slow it, spread it, sink it."
Xeriscaping takes into account the structure of the garden, types of plants used, soil composition, mulch, and grouping of plants into like-water needs.
RESOURCES
CALIFORNIA WATER EVENTS
| Regional Water Board Meeting Wed Sep 08 @09:00AM Elihu M. Harris Building, First Floor Auditorium, 1515 Clay Street, Oakland, CA 94612 |
| Fundamentals of Grey Water Systems for Sustainable and Integrated Water Management - New Webinar Mon Sep 13 @11:30AM Webinar |
| Wholly H2o September Forum: Establishiing Baseline Water Use, Audits, Benchmarking Mon Sep 13 @07:00PM Jellyfish Gallery, 1286 Folsom (at Ninth St.) San Francisco, CA 94103 (corner of 9th and Folsom, Civic Center Bart) |
| Early Detection Monitoring for Quagga & Zebra Mussels Tue Sep 14 @08:00AM EBMUD San Pablo Bay Reservoir ,7301 San Pablo Dam Road, San Pablo, CA |
| Theoretical and practical approaches for event detection and alarm reduction in water treatment Wed Sep 15 @11:30AM Webinar |
