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- Info
Urban surface water management
| Author: |
Walesh, Stuart G. |
| Date: |
1989 |
| Periodical: |
New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. A Wiley-Interscience Publication |
| Abstract: |
Urban Surface Water Management shows how state-of-the-art engineering tools and techniques have been and can be used to manage the quantity and quality of urban stormwater runoff. The book's focus is on planning and designing facilities and systems to prevent or to control flooding, erosion, sedimentation, and nonpoint-source pollution. The state of the art of urban surface water management is far ahead of the "state of the practice." As a group, engineers, planners, and public officials are using or are benefiting from the use of only a small fraction of what is known. For example, surface water systems are often designed and built without even considering or using state-of-the-art concepts or tools, such as the emergency and convenience system approach, watershed master planning, computer modeling, and multipurpose flood control-water quality enhancement-recreation facility possibilities. Certainly, more research and development are needed, but the public would benefit by closing the gap between what we know how to do and what we do. This book is intended to help close the gap between the state of the art and the state of the practice. Under the umbrella of closing the gap, several convictions influenced the organization and content of this book. First, rather than being a problem, surface water can be a valuable aesthetic and other resource in urban areas if we plan and design those areas to be compatible with the hydrologic cycle. Second, existing or potential surface water quantity and quality problems flood control, erosion, sedimentation, nonpoint-source pollution-should be addressed simultaneously in planning and design because causes of and solutions to quantity and quality problems are inextricably tied to each other and to the hydrologic cycle. Third, surface water management is usually of interest to a community's citizens and elected officials only when a disaster occurs. Accordingly, high-quality technical work coupled with effective public education and interaction programs are needed to raise the profile of surface water management. Fourth, much more emphasis must be placed on preventive rather than remedial efforts; on planning instead of fixing.
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