In urban areas, impervious surfaces such as rooftops, roads, and pavement cause increased stormwater runoff. Stormwater carries oil, trash, pet waste, fertilizers, and other pollution sources into rivers and waterbodies, often with no treatment. The District of Columbia is 43% impervious, and the District government has established some of the nation’s most stringent regulations and innovative incentive programs to encourage green infrastructure (GI) projects that reduce and treat stormwater runoff. This includes a first-of-its-kind credit trading program to allow for off-site compliance with the District’s stormwater management regulations.
The District’s river-protecting stormwater management programs are complex and require a robust database that can track program implementation and report on milestones to EPA, environmental stakeholders, and District decision-makers. The District’s challenge has been to implement many related stormwater management programs in a coordinated way while preserving the District’s ability to adaptively manage these programs. To resolve this challenge, the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) developed the Stormwater Database.
The Stormwater Database tracks detailed information for the thousands of green infrastructure practices that are approved every year to manage stormwater runoff in the District. The database tracks the size and location of each practice, and DOEE’s inspectors complete inspection forms in the field using the database on tablets. DOEE develops custom reports to show the amount of area retrofitted with green infrastructure across the District and evaluates how program are achieving environmental benefits in targeted areas. This information is all reported publicly.
DOEE took an unconventional approach to developing the Stormwater Database. After working with database contractors over a period of several years, DOEE found that the contractors could not achieve the results DOEE needed. Instead, DOEE custom-built the Stormwater Database in-house at low cost with an existing license to use an online database platform. Because DOEE staff who are responsible for implementing programs have also been responsible for designing and constructing the database components, DOEE’s program staff have the ability and expertise to adapt the Stormwater Database as necessary to meet changing program needs. This has made the Stormwater Database a robust tool and has allowed the District to implement its many river-protecting programs effectively and in coordination.
Results to Date:
In addition to tracking key program data, the Stormwater Database manages DOEE’s business process for application submittal, permit review, inspection, and various other functions. By integrating these many programs and functions into a single system, DOEE has streamlined its business processes, reduced duplicative applications, and provided more effective customer service. For example, using the Stormwater Database, DOEE analyzes its permit turnaround time to identify bottlenecks and implement process improvements to issue permits more quickly.
Program Dashboards: Dashboards provide program evaluation, allowing DOEE to adaptively manage its programs, including permit review and the environmental outcomes of Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) trades. Public Layer of Data: The Stormwater Database automatically publishes a weekly update on the location and size of green infrastructure throughout the District, which can be viewed online or downloaded as a spreadsheet or shapefile.
