Private citizens, scientists and policymakers all agree stormwater management needs to involve private lands, but diverge on what that looks like
Stormwater runoff
Climate predictions suggest the mid-Atlantic will face more frequent and severe rainstorms in coming years. Which leads to the question of what to do with all that additional rainwater. Throughout the region, many places are already facing more powerful floods that overwhelm the pipes and drainage systems built to handle stormwater.
Researchers from University of Maryland surveyed a variety of stakeholders and found that everyone agrees the old centralized way of managing stormwater needs to change, but their attitudes about how and who is responsible fall into three divergent camps. Two groups felt stormwater posed a public threat but disagreed about who was responsible for mitigation programs on private lands. The third group saw stormwater as an underutilized resource that should be managed with technology.
The study was published October 26 in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.
“Our research shows us where the disconnect is between different stakeholders and their attitudes toward stormwater management,” said Matthew Wilfong, who received his Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental Science and Technology (ENST) in June and is the lead author of the study. “That information allows policymakers to better identify areas where they need to adjust their policies or change the way they implement their programs and talk about stormwater management.
