Land, Water, Infrastructure And People: Considerations Of Planning For Distributed Stormwater Management Systems

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorLim, Theodore C.en
dc.contributor.committeechairLandis, John D.en
dc.contributor.committeememberDaniels, Thomas L.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWelty, Claireen
dc.contributor.departmentCity and Regional Planningen
dc.date.accessioned2021-12-16T18:30:43Zen
dc.date.available2021-12-16T18:30:43Zen
dc.date.issued2017en
dc.date.updated2021-12-16T18:30:40Zen
dc.description.abstractWhen urbanization occurs, the removal of vegetation, compaction of soil and construction of impervious surfaces—roofs, asphalt, and concrete—and drainage infrastructure result in drastic changes to the natural hydrological cycle. Stormwater runoff occurs when rain does not infiltrate into soil. Instead it ponds at the surface and forms shallow channels of overland flow. The result is increased peak flows and pollutant loads, eroded streambanks, and decreased biodiversity in aquatic habitat. In urban areas, runoff is typically directed into catch basins and underground pipe systems to prevent flooding, however such systems are also failing to meet modern environmental goals. Green infrastructure is the widely evocative idea that development practices and stormwater management infrastructure can do better to mimic the natural hydrological conditions through distributed vegetation and source control measures that prevent runoff from being produced in the first place. This dissertation uses statistics and high-resolution, coupled surfacesubsurface hydrologic simulation (ParFlow.CLM) to examine three understudied aspects of green infrastructure planning. First, I examine how development characteristics affect the runoff response in urban catchments. I find that instead of focusing on site imperviousness, planners should aim to preserve the ecosystem functions of infiltration and evapotranspiration that are lost even with low density development. Second, I look at how the spatial configuration of green infrastructure at the neighborhood scale affects runoff generation. While spatial configuration of green infrastructure does result in statistically significant differences in performance, such differences are not likely to be detectable above noise levels present in empirical monitoring data. In this study, there was no evidence of reduced hydrological effectiveness for green infrastructure located at sag points in the topography. Lastly, using six years of empirical data from a voluntary residential green infrastructure program, I show how the spread of green infrastructure depends on the demographic and physical characteristics of neighborhoods as well as spatially-dependent social processes (such as the spread of information). This dissertation advances the science of green infrastructure planning at multiple scales and in multiple sectors to improve the practice of urban water resource management and sustainable development.en
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy in City and Regional Planningen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.orcidLim, Theodore [0000-0002-7896-4964]en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/107084en
dc.publisherUniversity of Pennsylvaniaen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United Statesen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/en
dc.subjectStormwater managementen
dc.subjectGreen infrastructureen
dc.titleLand, Water, Infrastructure And People: Considerations Of Planning For Distributed Stormwater Management Systemsen
dc.typeDissertationen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Techen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Architecture and Urban Studiesen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Architecture and Urban Studies/School of Public and International Affairsen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/All T&R Facultyen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Architecture and Urban Studies/CAUS T&R Facultyen
thesis.degree.disciplineCity and Regional Planningen
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Pennsylvaniaen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy in City and Regional Planningen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
2017_LimTheodoreDissertation_final.pdf
Size:
5.4 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published version
Download

Collections

All Faculty Deposits
NDLTD Theses and Dissertations