Collaborative Research: Reimagining Urban Watershed Management: A Systems Approach to Stormwater Control and Ecological Rehabilitation

合作研究：重新构想城市流域管理：雨水控制和生态恢复的系统方法

• 批准号: 2204893
• 负责人: Branko Kerkez
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2204893&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Reimagining; Urban; Watershed

It is expected that a greater number of larger and denser cities will manifest more potent and pervasive pressures on stream ecosystems worldwide. Urbanization leads to greater stormwater runoff, which can result in a slate of ecological impairments that collectively have been identified as the “urban stream syndrome” (USS). Stormwater control is thus central to protecting and rehabilitating urban waterways, but stormwater management has largely prioritized objectives motivated by societal concerns, like flood control and protecting infrastructure, over consideration of ecological functions in receiving waters. Consequently, little progress has made towards ‘solving the syndrome’. This project aims to transform how urban runoff is managed by designing and demonstrating a systems approach to upland interventions to rehabilitate in-stream ecological conditions. The expectation is that the work will yield fundamental technological and conceptual advances to realize much-needed next generation stormwater infrastructure, addressing the grand challenge laid out by the National Academy of Engineering to Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure. The project could substantively improve the condition of surface waters across the US and abroad. According to the US EPA, urban runoff is the probable source of impairment for over 49,000 miles of rivers and streams that have been assessed in the US, a staggering number that illustrates the potential impact of innovative stormwater management solutions. It is the goal of the project to provide the foundation for transforming how urban runoff is managed by creating a new framework for rehabilitating and protecting surface waters. The project will recast stormwater runoff as an environmental flows problem that can be addressed by upgrading traditional stormwater infrastructure into cyber-physical ‘smart stormwater’ systems capable of adaptively meeting ecological and regulatory objectives.Static and decentralized replacement of grey stormwater infrastructure with green alternatives (e.g., bioswales, wet ponds) has not provided corrective remedies of USS. This has led to increasing advocacy for operational shifts towards basin-scale coordination of stormwater interventions and conceptual shifts towards viewing urban stormwater management through the lens of environmental flows. Recent advances in sensors and controls now allow stormwater infrastructure to be operated as a ‘smart’ system for managing how and when runoff is discharged into a receiving stream, affording unprecedented opportunities to (re)establish desired flow regimes based on a set of multiple objectives. In this project, the target is to determine and demonstrate how stormwater systems can be tuned to achieve environmental flows as an objective function to meet ecological and regulatory goals. The project will combine model parameterization and simulations with empirical tests, with the aim of assessing whether achieving environmental flows (1) is possible using a ‘smart stormwater’ approach; (2) alters ecosystem attributes and functioning in urban streams; and if so, (3) alleviates impairments characteristic of USS. This will entail (1) identifying and defining ecologically-informed performance objectives for urban watersheds; (2) using a systems approach to optimize stormwater interventions that leverage controllable outlets and adaptive control algorithms; and (3) empirically demonstrating and evaluating site- and system-level smart stormwater management at two experimental testbeds. The project also will also pursue public outreach through educational partnerships. The project team will continue to work with Tennessee's Knox County Schools to host biannual “Meet the Creek” citizen science events that offer students opportunities to learn about the effects of urbanization on streams and automation of storm water control, as well as collect physical and biological data on in-stream conditions that will support K-12 curricular goals. Additionally, aspects of this study will be integrated into topical courses taught by the investigators at their respective institutions, including a graduate seminar on ecological restoration and engineering courses focusing on modeling and analytics. The project will help advance diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM fields by involving students from underrepresented groups, who will be recruited through organizations like the UTK Engineering Office of Diversity Programs, and will afford excellent opportunities for graduate education and career advancement.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.

预计更多规模更大、更密集的城市将对全球河流生态系统产生更强大和更普遍的压力，城市化会导致更大的雨水径流，这可能导致一系列生态损害，这些生态损害统称为“城市河流”。因此，雨水控制对于保护和恢复城市水道至关重要，但雨水管理在很大程度上优先考虑了由社会关注引起的目标，例如防洪和保护基础设施，而很少考虑受纳水域的生态功能。该项目旨在通过设计和展示一种系统方法来恢复河流内的生态条件，从而改变城市径流的管理方式。美国表示，该项目旨在实现急需的下一代雨水基础设施，解决国家工程院提出的恢复和改善城市基础设施的巨大挑战，可以实质性改善美国和国外的地表水状况。 EPA，城市径流是美国已对超过 49,000 英里的河流和溪流进行了可能的损害源，这一数字令人震惊，说明了创新雨水管理解决方案的潜在影响，该项目的目标是为改变城市径流方式奠定基础。通过创建一个恢复和保护地表水的新框架来管理该项目将把雨水径流重新定义为一个环境流动问题，可以通过将传统的雨水基础设施升级为能够自适应地满足生态和监管要求的网络物理“智能雨水”系统来解决。用绿色替代品（例如生态洼地、湿池塘）静态和分散地取代灰色雨水基础设施并没有为 USS 提供纠正措施。这导致越来越多的人主张将雨水干预措施转向流域规模协调，并在概念上转变。通过环境流量的视角来看待城市雨水管理，传感器和控制装置的最新进展现在允许雨水基础设施作为“智能”系统来管理径流如何以及何时排入接收流，从而提供了前所未有的机会。在该项目中，（重新）建立所需的流量状况，目标是确定并演示如何调整雨水系统以实现环境流量作为目标函数，从而满足生态和监管目标。将模型参数化和模拟与实证测试相结合，旨在评估使用“智能雨水”方法是否可以实现环境流量（1）；（2）改变城市河流的生态系统属性和功能；如果可以，（3）这将减轻 USS 的缺陷特征。需要 (1) 确定和定义城市流域的生态绩效目标；(2) 使用系统方法来优化雨水干预措施，利用可控出口和自适应控制算法；(3) 实证论证和评估场地和系统级别该项目还将通过教育合作伙伴关系开展公共宣传活动，该项目团队将继续与田纳西州诺克斯县学校合作，举办一年两次的“遇见小溪”公民科学活动，为学生提供了解知识的机会。城市化对河流的影响和雨水控制的自动化，以及收集支持 K-12 课程目标的河流条件的物理和生物数据。该项目涉及来自代表性不足群体的学生在 STEM 领域的先进多样性、公平性和包容性，这些学生将通过 UTK Engineering 等组织招募。办公室多样性计划，并将为研究生教育和职业发展提供极好的机会。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。