Decentralizing Stormwater Management: Shifting Infrastructure and Evolving Hydrosocial Relationships

Abstract

Stormwater management has historically remained in the technocratic realm of engineers and scientists disconnecting society from stormwater to protect public and environmental health. Despite incremental improvements, state and local governments are beginning to change their management practices and techniques in response to climatic changes, increased urbanization, and intensifying regulatory pressures. Scholars and practitioners have argued that this paradigm shift in stormwater management is required to continue to protect public and environmental health and reach regulatory goals. Despite the need for this paradigm shift, there continues to be slow progress towards decentralization. Thisshift is characterized by two key developments: the increased implementation of decentralized green infrastructure and increased involvement of individuals in managing stormwater.

Broadly, this dissertation sets out to investigate two key aspects of this paradigm shift: (1) the hydrologic performance of these decentralized practices and (2) the social, political, cultural, and economic dynamics that are currently underpinning this paradigm shift. This dissertation begins with a chapter investigating the hydrologic performance ofdecentralized, green infrastructure treatment trains in Clarksburg, MD. Using stormwater monitoring methodology, we analyze how effectively treatment trains can hydrologically manage stormwater and the effects of precipitation dynamics on the ability of these treatment trains to manage stormwater. This research suggests that these treatment trains are generally highly effective at managing stormwater volumes across a host of storm events with an average of 93% of discharge abated throughout the monitoring period. We also demonstrate that precipitation intensity was the most influential precipitation dynamic on the performance of each treatment train suggesting that designing these treatment trains with the potential higher prevalence of higher intensity storm events due to climate change.

To begin the social science portions of the dissertation research, we utilize an alternative framework, the hydrosocial cycle, to analyze how stormwater and society have and continue to shape each other over time. Building upon this work, we investigate the political, social, and cultural dynamics influencing and arising within this paradigm shift occurring within stormwater management. Through semi-structured interviews and Q-methodology within two urban watersheds in Maryland and Washington DC, we assess changes in the hydrosocial relationships between stakeholders and stormwater. Using these insights, we discuss the potential for alignment and cooperation among these diverging hydrosocial relationships and continuing the shift towards decentralizing stormwater management. Arising from this holistic and critical analysis, we seek to provide actionable recommendations focused on how, where, and who manages stormwater to reach more sustainable, resilient, and equitable outcomes. Additionally, we aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of theseframeworks and methodologies to better attend to political and power dynamics involved in water governance and management, more broadly