Techniques are based on the idea that stormwater management should be seen as stormwater treatment, not disposal. LID addresses stormwater through small, cost-effective landscape features at the property rather than conveying and treating stormwater in large, costly end-of-pipe facilities at the bottom of drainage areas.
These landscape features, known as Integrated Management Practices, are the building blocks of LID. Almost all components of the urban environment have the potential to serve as a management practice including:
- Open spaces
- Rooftops
- Streetscapes
- Parking lots
- Sidewalks
- Medians
LID applications
- New development
- Urban retrofits
- Redevelopment/revitalization projects
LID benefits and advantages
- Can enhance the local environment and protect public health while saving developers and local governments money.
- Promotes fiscal health, protects environmental assets, and builds community livability.
- LID addresses nonpoint source/stormwater management regulatory challenges faced by states and local communities in the easiest and most economically sustainable manner.
- LID provides superior protection of surface and ground water from the impacts of nonpoint runoff and groundwater contamination associated with urbanization.
- Through more effective and flexible technologies, local governments can better balance their unique conservation, growth and economic development objectives.
- LID reduces stormwater conveyance and management infrastructure and their associated construction, maintenance and enforcement costs.
- Since LID uses multiple systems, it’s more effective in addressing unique water pollution and aquatic habitat degradation than conventional, one-dimensional best management practices (BMPs).
- LID technologies can be designed to suit every greenfield, brownfield and urban redevelopment application in any climatic or geological region.
- LID has added benefits beyond clean water, including increased property values, and quality of life, reduced air pollution, water conservation, and improved habitat protection.
- LID provides a better balance between environmental protection and growth necessary for economic vitality than the popularized growth management and conservation oriented approaches.
How can communities use LID?
Take a close look at local zoning codes and ordinances
Can you identify areas that can be changed to protect water resources. MCD can provide tools and/or assistance to evaluate your community’s existing codes and ordinances.
Land use plans, zoning, and subdivision regulations can be altered to allow for innovative Low Impact Development site design techniques for land developers.
There are model development principles available to provide guidance for economically viable, yet environmentally sensitive development. MCD’s objective is to provide planners, developers, and local officials with benchmarks to identify where existing ordinances can be modified to reduce impervious cover, conserve natural areas, and prevent stormwater pollution. These development principles are not national design standards, though national regulations do require local communities to develop their own strategies to manage these problems. Instead, they identify areas where existing codes and standards can be changed to better protect streams, lakes and wetlands at the local level.
The development principles are divided into the three following areas:
- Residential Streets and Parking Lots (Habitat for Cars)
- Lot Development (Habitat for People)
- Conservation of Natural Areas (Habitat for Nature)
