Stormwater results from heavy rainfall and melting snow that does not soak into the ground and tends to find its way to lower levels often resulting in flooding and damage to the environment. This resulting runoff often carries with it debris and dirt, especially from built-up areas, and results in pollution of the water sources to which the water eventually finds its way.
Stormwater tends to become an issue in urban areas as larger areas and man-made structures render the ground impermeable and prevent the water from being absorbed into the ground. As a result, you need to provide sewers and drains as part of efforts to provide proper stormwater management. Solutions to manage stormwater needs finding ways to capture the runoff, store it some fashion, and take actions to filter and purify the water so that when it finally finds its way to natural water courses that ultimately lead to the ocean, the water is relatively free of any pollution that can contaminate water sources.
Stormwater harvesting is one of the ideas that can help to reduce dependence on water and reuse the water that is harvested on rainy days.
Stormwater management can also help to control the runoff in urban areas and prevent flooding and reduce any damage that such flooding can cause. It can go a long way in improving the quality of groundwater by preventing pollution. This results in an improvement to the environment by protecting it from pollution. As a result, health can improve while prevention of flooding means greater attention to safety. Any such installed management system must ensure that the drainage systems are stable and durable and serve the community for long periods.
Solutions for stormwater management include setting up drains of proper capacities that serve the catchments from which the water will flow into them, and this is decided by the area served by the drains and the intensity of rain expected in that geographical area and the capacity of the drains to take away the stormwater depending on their size and the slopes that induce flow.
Where the drains are incapable of safely carrying away all the stormwater to natural outlets, solutions may have to be found by creating retention and detention ponds that act to store the water till it can be safely be discharged or absorbed into the ground. As these ponds will reduce the use of built-up areas another solution is to build large underground tanks for storage to act as ponds, thus freeing the area above for development. Soakaways are another solution that can be part of stormwater management.
