Issue link: http://uwashington.uberflip.com/i/600834
Many small and large urban communities in the U.S. have undertaken efforts towards transforming their existing street systems into "sustainable streets" or "green streets" that incorporate multiple ecological, community, and mobility functions. Implementation of natural drainage systems (such as planting strips, rain gardens, bio-swales, and filter strips built into the sidewalks) have become popular road-side green infrastructure solutions aimed at improving environmental sustainability of streets, because of their ability to treat roadway runoff, filter out roadway pollutants, and prevent sewer overflows after heavy storm events. However, there is lack of data and understanding on the effectiveness of these practices in capturing and treating roadway runoff, especially during the establishment period and during the different seasons. The main goal of this project was to collaborate with the Benton County, City of Corvallis, Oregon Water Resources Department, and Oregon- BEST, and multiple other partners to construct, instrument, monitor, model, and evaluate the effectiveness of bio-retention practices during their establishment phase. As a result of this collaborative project, the OSU-Benton County Green Stormwater Infrastructure Research Facility—an Oregon Best Lab was installed in the summer of 2014. This is an instrumented, semi-controlled, and three celled testing facility for green infrastructure that captures runoff from the Benton County Public Works transportation yard. Each cell enables field-scale testing of a road-side stormwater (natural or artificial) technology, and provides opportunities for near real-time monitoring and comparison with other technologies. In our initial experiments, we monitored and evaluated hydrologic performance of one of the cells, consisting of native broad-leaf plants and grasses, in mitigating flows during multiple storms. Findings illuminate quantitative differences among the peak flow reductions and peak delays in the bio-retention cell for storms occurring during the establishment period. Additional research is being conducted to further evaluate and model the extent of the establishment period on both flow and water quality. Another equally useful impact of this project is the construction of a new state-of-the-art testing facility that can be used for assessing the effectiveness of new and existing green infrastructure practices in the future. Research and projects at this facility are expected to benefit not only the researchers and the industry, but also enable development of engineering guidelines for the large number of design and maintenance parameters that currently make green infrastructure design a difficult process. Finally, presentations (e.g., at Water Environment School at Clackamas County, OR) and tours (e.g. to state agencies) have also been delivered as part of outreach efforts to improve awareness and knowledge of these practices and the facility. Contact: Dr. Meghna Babbar-Sebens, meghna@oregonstate.edu HOW GREEN IS YOUR GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE? A field-scale testing facility to investigate efficiency of road-side stormwater technologies 10 Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium