The aim of this Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure (LEAP-HI) project is to transform the design, implementation, and performance of stormwater infrastructure to reduce acute and chronic flooding and increase the ability of communities, and particularly those that are under-resourced, to prepare for, recover from, and adapt to extreme weather events. By integrating ecologically-based Green Infrastructure (GI) with existing Built Infrastructure (BI), the project will research technical and financial strategies to protect local communities from current and future flood damages and boost economic, social, and ecological redevelopment in neighborhoods across the US. The outcome of this multidisciplinary collaboration is the reinvention of the urban water cycle based on GI networks that not only improve water management and enhance the livability and quality of local environments, but also are more adaptive, robust, and resilient than the established (BI) practice of paving, piping and pumping. The research team will identify and then resolve the hurdles that have limited GI to single installations with limited real time performance data or to plans that remain unrealized. In doing so, this project will develop and apply engineering tools to real communities with real outcomes affecting real lives and, thereby, convert stormwater runoff into a community asset.
The overarching goal of this LEAP-HI project is to research the engineering tools (sensor network, data acquisition, model development, and network design) that will allow the integration of Green Infrastructure (GI) networks with existing Built Infrastructure (BI) for the management of stormwater with systems-level, predictive performance and quantitative assessment of costs and expanded benefits, including water quality, biodiversity and community well-being. The intellectual significance of the research is that it makes possible the transition from application of isolated GI installations as randomly deployed beautification efforts to engineered systems of GI networks that function synergistically to replace or enhance deteriorating networks of pumps and pipes. This project employs a systems approach in which GI/BI networks are designed to operate with predictive and expanded performance metrics that are achievable because the network designs are tailored to local conditions. Detailed study of test beds in Chicago and Pittsburgh, two cities with ongoing stormwater issues but fundamentally different topographies and infrastructure design, establish the basis for replication in a wide range of communities. By fundamentally improving our ability to predict GI/BI network performance, this project addresses three National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges: restore and improve urban infrastructure, provide access to clean water, and manage the nitrogen cycle.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
