Browsing by Subject "Impervious cover"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Beneficial use of stormwater and land development regulation case studies in Austin, Texas
(2018-10-08) Simmons, Michael William; Jiao, Junfeng
Urban development puts strain on the environment in numerous ways. Flora and fauna are pushed off the land, but more immediate to human health, the increase in impervious cover can lead to greater risks of flooding and polluted waters. The City of Austin made a commitment to the environment and managing the city’s hydrology in its 2012 Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan. The city’s Watershed Protection Department (WPD) is working to fulfill the city’s promise by writing regulation to be included in CodeNEXT, the rewrite of the City’s land development code. The aim of this “beneficial use” regulation is to infiltrate, reuse or evapotranspire rainwater that falls on highly impervious multi-family and commercial sites within the city limits. I was hired by the WPD to conduct feasibility studies of their regulation and began by familiarizing myself with Austin’s Environmental Criteria Manual (ECM) and the history behind the proposed regulation. I first investigate the extent green stormwater control measures (GSCMs) laid out in the ECM can be implemented on existing sites in the city of varying degrees of impermeability selected by WPD staff. Starting from city archived site plans and shapefiles, I place GSCMs spatially in ArcGIS and use the ECM to determine whether the beneficial use volume threshold set by the city could be met for each site. Finally, I discuss how the findings of my study led to a simplification of the proposed regulation.
Small lot amnesty tool : evaluating potential population growth benefits and costs in Austin, Texas
(2016-05) Garner, Brianna; Paterson, Robert G.; Mueller, Elizabeth
This study examines the Small Lot Amnesty tool, an infill tool option for single-family neighborhoods in Austin, Texas. After the tool’s misuse and a heated public discussion, City Council chose to close the developer loophole that many argued did not meet the tool’s original intent. The study quantifies potential population growth benefits and costs if the City Council voted the other way, allowing the tool to disaggregate small lots and build multiple homes on what was once only one house. The findings reveal many population growth benefits, such as increased children enrollment into the local school system, but also expose the challenges of such growth, including increased water runoff due to increased impervious cover. Recommendations are made for the City of Austin and City Council to consider, including a public dialogue and outreach participatory program to gather citizen’s input, future research opportunities to better understand the tool’s potential and issues, and reducing the minimum lot size standards for Single-Family development in Austin.
The gray & green stitch : blending green infrastructure into urban transportation right-of-ways
(2019-12-06) Patel, Priya Mahendrabhai; Paterson, Robert G.
Rapid growth and climate change are two main challenges that the majority of the cities of the United States currently face. For this reason, it is time for cities to use smart and multidisciplinary techniques to address these challenges. To present an example, this study proposes ideas and strategies on how to manage stormwater runoff to reduce some of the impacts of floods. The consequences of stormwater are often hardly noticed until it is too late. In Texas, the cities have become hotter than before and are predicted to become more intolerable in the future. Hotter temperatures increase the frequency of storms annually, and with an increase in the number of storms comes heavy rainfall. In turn, heavy rainfall and an increase in impervious cover due to population growth can be the worst nightmare for the cities of Texas. One of the sustainable techniques that few cities in the USA are implementing to overcome the issues of managing stormwater runoff is Green Streets. Green Streets allow the public right of way (ROW) to manage stormwater runoff with comparatively very affordable solutions than other longtime expensive grey infrastructures. As the concept of Green Street is new, not many cities have this program implemented. However, the cities that have implemented them agree that it has not only helped to reduce the impact of floods, but it has also greatly improved the quality of the surrounding neighborhoods. The objective of this report is to investigate the challenges regarding stormwater management at three levels—Macro (Colorado River Watershed-the city of Austin), Meso (the Shoal Creek Watershed), and Micro (Clay Street), and help the city of Austin implement a Green Street program. This study can act as an information guide, providing steps to be taken to implement green streets for the City of Austin where no such program yet exists. It will provide recommended strategies to the city to tackle some of the climate issues highlighted in the “Atlas 14” Report and reduce the risks of flooding and polluted waters due to the increase in impervious cover