Afternoon Breakout Sessions | Day Three: Wednesday, July 21

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3:00 PM - 4:15 PM | Sessions 22, 23, & 24

Session 22: Building Tools for Understanding Regional Planning Governance and Policy Landscapes

Louisiana’s flat geography, riverine systems, proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, and humid climate make it susceptible to flooding. Development patterns have exacerbated risk, as demonstrated by disasters and vulnerability to flooding that extends inland from coastal Louisiana. After major flooding in 2016 impacted 56 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes, the Louisiana Watershed Initiative (LWI) emerged to create a paradigm shift around floodplain management. This session focuses on the development of regional governance bodies for watersheds, a new approach for systemically addressing flood hazards where government has traditionally treated them as local problems. This approach involves state and local governments, regional planning bodies, and NGOs. It entails challenges of fragmented governance, equity, and consensus building. This session will include perspectives from the lead state agency, regional watershed coordinators from LWI Regions 5 & 7, and researchers building tools to understand and analyze planning governance capacity.

Moderators:
Rachelle Sanderson, Capital Region Planning Commission
Thomas Douthat, Louisiana State University College of the Coast & Environment

Presenters:

1. Alexandra Carter-Gelpi, Louisiana Office of Community Development, "Introduction to the Louisiana Watershed Initiative"
2. Kelia Bingham, Acadiana Planning Commission (Region 5), "The Pursuit of Permanent Change: Regional Watershed Management in Acadiana"
3. Rachelle Sanderson, Capital Region Planning Commission (Region 7) "Transforming Uncertainty Into Opportunities for Regional Collaboration"
4. Thomas Douthat, Louisiana State University College of the Coast & Environment, "Building Tools for Understanding Regional Planning Govern Governance LSU"

Session 23: Science from the South Platte Urban Waters Partnership

This session will focus on several scientific studies begin conducted by members of the South Platte River Urban Waters Partnership (SPRUWP). This partnership brings together Federal, non-federal agencies, Universities, and non-profits in an effort to improve water quality in the South Platte River with a special focus on the urban portion of the river in Denver.

Moderator: 
William Battaglin, USGS

Presenters:

1. William Battaglin, USGS, "Legrangian sampling to identify sources and sinks of orthophosphate and nitrate on the South Platte River and Cherry Creek in Denver"
2. Jon Novick, City and County of Denver, "Results from Performance Monitoring of Green Infrastructure Stormwater Control Measures in Denver"
3. Jordan Parman, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, "Assessment of In-Stream Channel Improvements to Promote Thermal Mixing and Diversify Native Fish Habitat in an Effluent-Dominated Segment of the South Platte River”
4. Alison Witheridge, Denver Water, "Watershed Planning for Denver’s Raw Water Supply"
5. Elizabeth Cox, United States Forest Service, "STEW-MAP in the South Platte River"

Session 24: Green Stormwater Infrastructure

Join this session to explore managing stormwater efficiently as the foundation for clean, sustainable and resilient communities. This session will cover infiltration systems commonly implemented practices to control urban stormwater, data modelling, use of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) and present case students that have transformed their stormwater programs with an information management overall. Infiltration systems are among the most commonly implemented practices to control urban stormwater and to attenuate pollutant delivery to receiving waters, because they are relatively cheap to build and amenable to space constraints in urbanized areas. However, infiltration systems tend to clog with sediments, which can rapidly reduce their performance. While clogging has been consistently identified as a significant determinant on infiltration BMP (best management practice) performance and lifespan, there have been few methods reported to predict rates of clogging or incorporate insights to urban catchment water quality modeling. We ran a series of laboratory and field experiments to identify clogging mechanisms and quantify infiltration performance declines as a function of sediment loading. Data modelling can help manage and maintain structural BMPs, urban outfalls, track pollutant load reduction, enable flood mitigation, manage urban litter reduction, illicit discharge and more. This knowledge gained from a digitally-managed stormwater program can strategically guide green infrastructure investments, innovation, partnership development, and community engagement, funding, policy and advocacy. We present city case studies that have transformed their stormwater programs with an information management overhaul. Cities have been able to not only consolidate their data storage systems, but also standardize data types, automate workflows and reports, and run advanced analytics in real-time. Cloud-based data storage eliminates the need for on-site servers — data records can be accessed anywhere and changes are trackable. Use of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) to mitigate urban runoff impacts has grown substantially in recent decades, but municipalities often lack an integrated approach to prioritize areas for implementation, demonstrate compelling evidence of catchment-scale improvements, and communicate stormwater program effectiveness. We present a method for quantifying runoff reduction benefits associated with distributed GSI that is designed to align with the spatial scale of information required by urban stormwater implementation.

Moderator: 
Jason Yoho, 2NDNATURE Software

Presenters:

1. Gary Conley, 2NDNATURE Software, "Quantifying Clogging Patterns of Infiltration Systems To Improve Urban Stormwater Pollution Reduction Estimates"; "Identifying Relationships Between Urban Greenness, Hydrologic Changes, and Green Stormwater Infrastructure Across the United States"; "Assessing the Feasibility of a Cloud-Based, Spatially Distributed Modeling Approach for Tracking Green Stormwater Infrastructure Runoff Reductions"
2. Michelle Tanner, 2NDNATURE Software, "Digital Transformation Is Revolutionizing Stormwater Programs: How To Be Ready for Changes Ahead"
3. Jason Yoho, 2NDNATURE Software, "Achieving Social Equity Through a Digitized Stormwater Management and Compliance Program"