At a Glance
Employing innovative stormwater best management practices to mitigate the quantity and quality of stormwater runoff entering the City’s combined sewer system will help New York’s efforts to restore the Hudson-Raritan Estuary.
Project Description
Biohabitats assessed opportunities to employ stormwater best management practices (BMP) that will mitigate the quantity and quality of stormwater runoff entering New York City’s entire combined sewer system. Given identified opportunities and constraints for this ultra-urban area, Biohabitats considered a wide array of technologies including collection, filtering and treatment systems, non-structural and structural strategies; changes in existing maintenance and management practices; education tools and stakeholder awareness programs, to changes in development regulations, architectural guidelines and land use policies. New emerging technologies were also explored (green roof canopy concepts, green corridors, etc.) along with “out-of-the-box” ideas that are tailored to New York City’s ultra-urban infrastructure and unique environmental conditions.
Biohabitats conducted both office and field assessments of potential locations within each of the catchment areas of the study area that could support the refined list of stormwater BMP technologies. Biohabitats then prepared a refined GIS layer illustrating potential stormwater BMP sites and associated technologies.
Finally, Biohabitats prepared a report documenting the methodologies, findings and recommendations of this study. This thorough approach will allow the development of a comprehensive long term approach toward mitigating the stormwater management problems plaguing New York’s five boroughs.