EPA Selects Eighth Annual Campus RainWorks Challenge Winners

EPA Select Eighth Annual Campus RainWorks Challenge Winners

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced the winners of its eighth annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, which tasks teams of college students in the United States with devising green infrastructure (GI) implementation plans that make their campuses and surrounding communities environmentally resilient.

Implementing GI refers to a variety of practices that restore or mimic natural hydrological processes. While “gray” stormwater infrastructure is largely designed to convey stormwater away from the built environment, GI uses soils, vegetation, and other media to manage rainwater where it falls by capture and evapotranspiration. By integrating natural processes into the built environment, GI provides a wide variety of community benefits, including improving water and air quality, reducing urban heat island effects, creating habitat for pollinators and other wildlife, and providing aesthetic and recreational value.

Student Involvement

The design competition seeks to engage with the next generation of environmental professionals, foster a dialogue about the need for innovative stormwater management techniques, and showcase the environmental, economic, and social benefits of GI practices. Tomorrow’s stormwater professionals demonstrate how GI can protect water quality and mitigate flooding, while improving local property values and quality of life.

This year’s RainWorks Challenge attracted entries from 50 student teams representing institutions in 20 states. Participants submitted proposals in two categories: S Master Plan: For broad, campuswide GI implementation programs. S Demonstration Project: Focuses on projects that demonstrate GI’s environmental, social, and economic benefits in a single location.

Innovative Projects Inspire Judges

Federation (WEF), American Society of which the team explains would also raise the local Landscape Architects, and American Society water table and overwhelm the nearby wetlands of Civil Engineers to judge the entries. For this that the campus relies on for flood protection. year’s competition, six volunteers from the WEF Their proposal, developed in close Stormwater Committee participated as judges. cooperation with FIU facilities staff, involves

“It’s comforting to know that those of us constructing a series of such GI measures as entering our twilight years can rest knowing that green roofs, vertical gardens, parking lot filtration a new, high caliber of young people will be taking gardens, permeable walkways, and bioswales over the mantle of rainwater, stormwater, and throughout campus, which would supplement watershed management, with a determination to five new, interconnected constructed wetlands. continue national efforts to protect and preserve According to project documents, NOAA our hydrology cycle, surface water quality, modeling tools indicated that the team’s proposed water supply, and aquatic systems, and involve interventions would diminish runoff-related the people linked to water,” said Neal Shapiro, water pollution by removing up to 84 percent of watershed program coordinator for the City total suspended solids and 66 percent of metals of Santa Monica (Calif.), and one of the WEF in runoff compared to current conditions. An Stormwater Committee judges. array of 13 green roofs would capture about 9.2

“This year’s review indicated that a million gallons of runoff per year for potential multidisciplinary team can lead to a more wellreuse applications. rounded design and that students are able to utilize classroom concepts to develop stormwater University of Arizona — Second Place, Master management solutions for the benefit of their Plan Category campus and the wider community,” said Suha Second place in the master plan category Atiyeh, project manager for the District of went to a team from the University of Arizona for Columbia Department of Transportation, who its project, “Against the Grain.” also represented the WEF Stormwater Committee During the Sonoran Desert’s rare rainy as a judge. “Congratulations to this year’s winners months, the University of Arizona campus and to all the teams for submitting entries that currently misses potential for runoff capture and embodied the application of innovative stormwater use, instead diverting heavy rainfall off campus management solutions beyond the classroom.” as efficiently as possible. Not only can the current practice cause flooding issues in other parts of 2019 Winners Tucson, the team explains, but it can also turn the widest roads and walkways on campus into

For the 2019 challenge, the first-place team untraversable “temporary rivers.” in each design category will receive a student At the same time, most of the main prize of $5,000, to be divided evenly among the thoroughfares for pedestrians and cyclists on campus team, and a faculty prize of $5,000. The secondrun east-west, resulting in “awkward” movement place team in each category will receive a student patterns for students traveling north-south. prize of $2,500, to be divided evenly among the The team’s project addresses two issues—one team, and a faculty prize of $2,500. environmental and one social—by carving three

The winners, who all submitted their new, north-south pedestrian and bicycle corridors projects in video format, are as follows: designed to divert surface-level runoff into a series of basins that slow, capture, and infiltrate Florida International University — First Place, it. The design consists of GI elements, including Master Plan Category rain gardens with native vegetation, curb cuts,

The winning project in the master plan sidewalk scuppers, and bioretention facilities. category, “Coastal Eco-Waters: Adapting for a According to the team’s performance Resilient Campus,” was submitted by students estimates, implementing the design on campus from Florida International University (FIU). would result in a 19 percent decrease in peak flow

Particularly during hurricane season, FIU’s and a 40 percent runoff capture rate for a twoBiscayne Bay campus experiences frequent inland year storm event, a 71 percent increase in average and coastal flooding. By 2050, the U.S. National runoff concentration time, and as much as 19.6 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration acre feet of stormwater storage capacity for reuse (NOAA) estimates that sea levels along Florida’s in irrigation by installing cisterns. eastern coastline could rise by more than 2 feet, Continued on page 26 Florida Water Resources Journal • July 2020 25

Continued from page 25

University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) — First Place, Demonstration Project Category

A team from UCLA earned first place in the demonstration project category for “Little Steps to a Sustainable Future,” which involves plans for retrofits and redesigns of the campus of a local elementary school.

During heavy storms, the mostly impervious Brockton Elementary campus routinely floods, keeping students at home, while necessitating costly repair work. At the same time, demand for stressed water supplies continues to grow in the Los Angeles area, where stormwater runoff is the primary source of local water pollution.

The team focused on flood mitigation, with a particular emphasis on runoff capture and use. Their recommendations call for a 7,600-squarefoot green roof consisting of drought-tolerant dune sedge grass, three bioretention areas aimed at removing silt and pollution, four natively planted rain gardens, and about 4,800 square feet

of permeable pavement that drains into a large, underground cistern.

Each GI installation would also include educational signage in both English and Spanish that teaches students and faculty about the nature-based systems at work in their community.

As part of the project, team members visited classrooms at the school to demonstrate the filtration process for students using simple terms and hands-on models.

Arizona State University — Second Place, Demonstration Project Category

Students from Arizona State University also focused their project on a local elementary school, earning second place in the demonstration project category.

The “Ready! Set! Activate!” project would redesign the playground at Paideia Academy in south Phoenix to improve both stormwater management and the student experience.

Located on an alluvial floodplain, with poor

flood-control infrastructure in place, the school experiences chronic seasonal flooding that often necessitates class cancellations.

The team’s recommended redesign focuses on interactivity, creating “resilient, natural learning and play landscapes” that mitigate flooding, reduce heat island effects, create new gathering areas and play equipment for students, and more. The design includes, for example, a four-square court made of permeable decomposed granite covered by steel shade structures, and a large parking lot redesign that removes more than 7,000 square feet of impervious concrete.

In all, the proposed design increases stormwater retention volumes by about 65 percent and introduces at least 15 native plant species that are distributed through an array of new rain gardens, bioretention areas, and bioswales.

To sign up for email updates or ask a question about the Campus RainWorks Challenge go to RainWorks@epa.gov.