Watershed Assessment and Stormwater Management Optimization Tools

12/17/2015

Watershed Assessment and Stormwater Management Optimization Tools

SERDP and ESTCP launched a webinar series to promote the transfer of innovative and sustainable solutions developed through its projects. These webinars provided cutting edge and practical information that is easily accessible at no cost. This webinar discussed: (1) watershed modeling and assessment for sustaining and enhancing the military mission and training; and (2) the optimization of the stormwater modeling approach.

Presented December 17, 2015 - Presentation Slides

Webinar Topics

Watershed Modeling and Assessment to Sustain and Enhance Military Mission and Training by Dr. David Goodrich

DoD Instruction 4715.03 calls for a watershed-based approach to manage operations, activities, and lands to avoid or minimize impacts to wetlands, groundwater, and surface waters on or adjacent to installations. Watershed modeling systems are a critical component to support this mandate, as well as maintain military training and the sustainability of DoD lands. A series of three ESTCP projects were initiated and designed to both validate and demonstrate three modeling systems on military installations. These systems include: (1) Better Assessment Science Integrating point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) Modeling System with enhancements for military-specific applications for demonstration at Fort Benning and Fort AP Hill; (2) Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran (HSPF) combined with the Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) at Fort Hood and Naval Base Ventura County; and (3) Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) coupled with the Facilitator multi-objective Decision Support Tool (DST) at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, Fort Bliss, and Fort Carson. Each project will demonstrate the relationship between model performance and alternative levels of data availability and provide uncertainty analyses for model predictions. Successful demonstration and validation of these technologies will support their transfer to other DoD installations and demonstrate the ability to do so in a cost-efficient manner.

Optimization of Stormwater Modeling Approach by Ms. Heidi Howard

Urban development can lead to deterioration of hydrologic and water quality runoff conditions. In response to growing concerns about adverse environmental impacts resulting from unmitigated urban stormwater runoff, regulatory agencies have adopted stringent requirements to limit or mitigate downstream hydrologic and water quality impacts. This includes Section 438 of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA). To comply with EISA, military installations must carry out modeling analyses to identify appropriate sizes of best management practices (BMPs) or low impact development (LID) structures for stormwater control to achieve no net change in hydrology from the existing condition. To address the question of model selection appropriateness, Tetra Tech and Air Force Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) developed a tool designed to help DoD facilities achieve compliance with regulatory stormwater requirements for the minimum volume/cost possible. Depending upon specific site conditions, the Model Selection Tool recommends one modeling method out of three possible alternatives: a simple design storm approach (e.g., the 95th percentile rainfall treatment), a simple continuous simulation approach (SWMM), or a continuous simulation approach that is coupled with optimization (SUSTAIN). The Model Selection Tool is now being validated by Tetra Tech and ERDC-CERL across 45 installations of widely varying climatic and regional conditions. A full-scale demonstration will take place at two installations to showcase the capabilities of Stormwater Management Optimization Toolbox (SMOT) to illustrate the ease and validities of the model selection element.

Speaker Biographies

Dr. Dave Goodrich is a Lead Scientist and Research Hydraulic Engineer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service at the Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona, where he has worked since 1988. He also serves as an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona where he received his Ph.D. His current research efforts are directed to: scaling issues in rainfall-runoff and erosion modeling; identification of dominant hydrologic processes over a range of basin scales; climatic change impacts on hydrologic response; and incorporation of remotely sensed data into hydrologic models. Dr. Goodrich also holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Wisconsin.

Ms. Heidi Howard is a Research Agronomist for Military Lands with the Army’s Engineer Research and Development Center at the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois. Heidi is the program lead for development of methodologies and algorithms for quantification of cumulative interactions of land management and military systems on training lands. This includes the development, validation, and implementation of stormwater and erosion control management designs, military vehicle impact models, vehicle impact assessment, and vegetation recovery. Ms. Howard is responsible for research on sustainable lands and ranges for military installations. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Western Illinois University and a Master's degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from University of Illinois.