Sustainable Stormwater Management as an Opportunity for Campus and Community-based Engineering Education

Sustainable stormwater best management practices (BMPs) seek to mimic natural or predevelopment site hydrology, improve runoff quality, can provide small islands of green space in urban environments, and capture a resource that is otherwise unused. Because existing urban areas, including college and university campuses, were largely developed prior to the implementation of ordinances requiring BMPs, an opportunity arises for incorporating both on-campus and community stormwater retrofit projects into civil and environmental engineering courses, and in the process, exploring sustainability in a quantifiable way that tangibly connects to the student experience. This paper will describe a case study of a five-year project in which students conceptualized, designed, helped to construct, and now monitor a stormwater detention wetland near campus. The objective of the project was three-fold: (1) to address an existing runoff problem that was degrading a high-quality stream in the local community, (2) to involve undergraduate students in an integral way in the design process, system maintenance, and in performance monitoring, and (3) to use the project as a practical illustration of how sustainability constraints are incorporated into water resources engineering. The importance of ongoing partnerships with the local municipality, regulatory agencies, and watershed advocacy organizations is emphasized as key to sustaining multiple-year off-campus projects. Qualitative assessment suggests the project was highly motivational to many students; however, a drawback is that a given class of students only experiences a portion of the overall project.