Stormwater Management and Green Infrastructure Research
For many cities, stormwater management remains one of the greatest challenges to meeting water quality standards. Additional energy and funds are needed to treat stormwater related pollutants; however in some cases treatment is not even possible when surges in stormwater overwhelm systems that convey combined sewage and stormwater, resulting in direct discharge of untreated human, commercial, and industrial water into surface waters.
EPA’s integrated stormwater management research focuses on reducing combined sewer overflows (CSOs), managing stormwater quality and quantity, and using stormwater for augmenting water resources. Scientists and engineers are studying green infrastructure to help support local, state, and national stormwater management objectives to reduce runoff through infiltration and retention. EPA’s research supports the increased adoption of both constructed and natural green infrastructure into communities through the improvement of models and tools, drawing from experiences, and the evaluation of data from increasing application of green infrastructure practices throughout the Nation.
Green and Grey Infrastructure
Optimizing stormwater management requires the use of both existing gray infrastructure and green infrastructure. Gray infrastructure is traditional stormwater infrastructure in the built environment such as gutters, drains, and pipes, and green infrastructure, whereas green infrastructure mimics nature and captures rainwater where it falls, and includes permeable pavements, rain gardens, bioretention cells (or bioswales), vegetative swales, infiltration trenches, green roofs, planter boxes, rainwater harvesting (rain barrels or cisterns), rooftop (downspout) disconnection, and urban tree canopies.
EPA’s green and grey infrastructure research involves synthesizing existing models, methods, assessment data, and approaches (e.g., flow control) to aid communities in stormwater management planning, including evaluation of costs and benefits, operation, and green/grey infrastructure maintenance issues. The research integrates and accounts for system hydraulics and interactions with other hydrologic processes in the stormwater/wastewater collection, conveyance, and combined/septic sewer overflow-outfall system.
Research and Technical Assistance
- Green Infrastructure Research at EPA Brochure
- Urban soils, ecosystem services, and the application of green infrastructure practices
- Assessments of green infrastructure impacts on watersheds
- Best practices for design, operation and maintenance of green infrastructure
- Decision support guidance for sustainable communities
- Promoting sustainability through Net Zero strategies
- Technical assistance with green infrastructure
Models and Tools
Related Resources
Basics, Planning, and Partnerships
Sustainable Communities
- Healthy Benefits of Green Infrastructure in Communities Fact Sheet
- Lick Run: Green Infrastructure in Cincinnati and Beyond
- Using Economic Incentives to Manage Stormwater Runoff in the Shepherd Creek Watershed, Part I
- Urban Street Trees and Green Infrastructure
- Community Solutions for Voluntary Long-Term Stormwater Planning