Improving innovation in America's stormwater sector

According to the Water Environment Federation’s (WEF) Rainfall to Results report published in 2023, improving water quality and quantity at a lower cost is fundamentally about innovating. The problem is the technology used to improve stormwater runoff quality has not substantially changed over the past 30 years. Straining, sedimentation, filtration and infiltration are still the primary methods stormwater management professionals use, but their efficacy for improving water quality is limited, due to the large volumes and ephemeral characteristics of rainfall and runoff.

One Water approach

A potential solution: WEF’s “One Water” approach. “One Water” promotes the circular use of water in suburban and urban areas to maintain water quantities in a closed loop system that relies on centralized and distributed infrastructure to provide raw water for treatment. This is accomplished by using recycled wastewater treated by advanced methods for disinfection. By capturing, using and reusing stormwater runoff for urban and industrial purposes, stormwater can supplement direct potable reuse systems and help solve the stormwater quality problem for receiving waters by reducing stormwater quantity and flow to receiving streams in urban areas.

Effectively managing water resources is important in all regions of the United States. Although the arid southwest has the most pressing need for new water sources, wetter climates can also benefit from them. To date, few urban areas have fully implemented the “One Water” approach, but technological advancements are facilitating better, and more efficient, water use and reuse.

Innovating Best Practices 

AtkinsRéalis is currently working with cities and stormwater management professionals across the nation to help them develop innovative best practices and solutions using cutting-edge, digital tools such as AtkinsRéalis’ City Simulator. City Simulator is an analytics software platform using Esri technology that serves as a digital twin, pulling data from a geographic information system (GIS) and modeling scenarios in a time-lapsed fashion on digital maps. It considers natural and social factors to identify potential future impacts of stormwater runoff enabling cities to properly prepare and plan for them. In City Simulator, when a storm hits, you see all the buildings that get flooded and the culverts and bridges that are under capacity. When communities can see a detailed and holistic view of a storm’s impact, the experience becomes a lot more visceral, which can help move the needle in terms of taking action (such as funding) and being better prepared.

In 2013, a severe storm flooded Colorado’s Boulder County, dumping a year’s worth of rain in just a few hours. This prompted county officials to launch a resiliency study to improve floodplain management and protect infrastructure. As part of the study, a simulation was run within City Simulator demonstrating the impact future rainfall projections would have on the county through 2050. Its models indicated more severe floods were possible in the coming decades, and infrastructure originally constructed to withstand once-per-century weather events may need upgrades.

By using WEF’s “One Water” approach and innovative tools such as City Simulator, we can help solve America’s stormwater quality problem, improve resiliency and preserve water resources for generations to come.