An Assessment of Impediments to Low-Impact Development in the Virginia Portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Stormwater runoff from urban and urbanizing areas poses a serious threat to water quality, and unless managed properly will impede efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay.Water quantity, as well as quality, must be considered, and Low Impact Development(LID) is an innovative stormwater management approach that addresses both. LID seeks to mimic a site's predevelopment hydrologic regime by retaining and treating stormwater at the lot level using small, cost-effective landscape features.The purpose for this study was to identify and rank impediments to the implementation of LID in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This was accomplished by going to LID workshops and distributing a survey to stakeholders in attendance. The survey asked respondents to rank the following impediments to the implementation of LID: site-specific & non-structural, property owner acceptance, pollutant removal benefit, development rules, lack of education, maintenance considerations, flooding problems, and cost. Lack of education was ranked as the most important impediment, with development rules following close behind. Pollutant removal benefit was ranked the least important impediment. A second purpose was to assess whether there is a relationship between a county's growth rate and adoption of Better Site Design principles (BSD) and LID. A Code and Ordinance Worksheet was used to evaluate the development rules of 13 counties (6 high growth, 3 medium growth and 4 low growth) within Virginia's portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The scores from the worksheets were used to determine if the amount of growth pressure experienced by a county influenced the degree to which they incorporated BSD and LID in their local development codes. Statistical testing revealed that the relationship between growth pressure and score on the Code and Ordinance Worksheet was moderate, at best.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Environmental Sciences

Year dc:date.available

2007

Author dc:creator

• Lassiter, Rebecca V'lent

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Margot Garcia

• water pollution
• urban runoff
• Chesapeake 2000 Agreement
• Chesapeake Bay
• stormwater management
• water quality
• Environmental Sciences
• Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/892

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1891