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Full Paper Proc. of Int. Conf. on Advances in Design and Construction of Structures 2012

Sustainable Stormwater Management in Developing and Developed Countries: A Review Nivedita G Gogate1 and Pratap M Rawal2 1

Department of Civil Engineering, MIT, Pune, India Email: nivedita.gogate@mitpune.edu.in 2 Department of Civil Engineering, College Of Engineering, Pune, India Email: pushpak20@yahoo.co.uk Abstract - Traditionally, surface runoff was considered as an undesired water in developed areas which needed to be diverted as complete and as fast as possible from urban areas. In contrary to earlier concepts which considered surface runoff as clean water, the rainwater from impervious areas may be polluted with a series of contaminants. In the 1960s, management of stormwater quantity for flood prevention was the only imperative in the developed countries, but in subsequent decades objectives for stormwater management have diversified to include quality, ecosystem health, reuse, integration with urban design etc along with quantity and has inspired the development of novel stormwater management approaches designed to minimize impervious cover and maximize infiltration of rainfall known as LID in USA and WSUD in Australia. These techniques, if implemented at a watershed scale may offer a more sustainable solution to stormwater management. Though, sustainability is already recognized as a very important concept for the urban drainage management, there are, however many difficulties to effectively implement a sustainable urban stormwater approach in developing countries. Water resources have become the casualty of intensive urbanization leading to pollution of water bodies, lakes, rivers and contamination of precious groundwater. Thus, there is a need to integrate stormwater management in urban water planning. India, too needs to adopt sustainable practices in overall water management. This paper aims to present a review of the research work and projects carried out in developed and developing countries with respect to sustainable stormwater management. It also presents the analysis of stormwater quality in pune city in Maharashtra, India thus stressing the need for sustainable management of stormwater in India. Index Terms - Sustainable Development, Stormwater Management, Low Impact development, Water Sensitive Urban Design, BMP (Best Management Practice)

ecological point of view but also comprising social and economic aspects in the broad sense [1]. A sustainable urban water system, or stormwater system, is not only a question of problems and avoiding unwanted content in the water, it can also be a question of its potential usability as a water resource in society [2]. Stormwater drainage may not only be considered as systems to divert undesired water from urban areas, but also as a valuable element for landscaping the surrounding of buildings and roads [3]. This paper aims to present a review of various sustainable stormwater management studies being carried out in developed countries, and will also cover a summary of the research work carried out in developing countries, with special reference to India. II. CURRENT SCENARIO IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES It was identified by many researchers that stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces is a key contributor to the collapse of healthy freshwater ecosystems in urban environments in both the United States (US) and Australia. This problem has been recognized for many years and has inspired the development of novel stormwater management approaches designed to minimize impervious cover and maximize infiltration of rainfall known as Low Impact Development (LID) in USA and Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) in Australia [4]. In the 1960s, management of stormwater quantity for flood prevention was the only imperative, but in subsequent decades objectives for stormwater management have diversified to include other aspects such as quality, recreation & aesthetics, integration with urban design, ecosystem health and reuse, as shown in fig. 1.

I. INTRODUCTION Surface runoff from impervious areas is presently strongly discussed in view of future changes concerning its quantitative and qualitative management within urban water systems. Traditionally, surface runoff was considered as an undesired water in developed areas which needed to be diverted as complete and as fast as possible from urban areas. In contrary to earlier concepts which considered surface runoff as clean water, the rainwater from impervious areas may be polluted with a series of contaminants. During the last decade, increased attention has been paid to the issue of sustainability for urban water systems, not only from an 36 Š 2012 ACEE DOI: 02.ADCS.2012.1. 515

Fig.1. Prominent urban stormwater management discourses over the twentieth century [5]


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