Advancing Sustainable Stormwater Management at Villanova University

Canon 1 of the ASCE code of ethics directs engineers to "comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties." This paper will explore some ways that the Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership is advancing the art and practice of sustainable design for stormwater management in developing areas. The VUSP is a related series of innovative features (many on campus) coupled with an extensive educational, outreach and research effort. In breadth, it reaches and directly involves as participants a diverse population of designers, investigators and decision makers. This collective endeavor is contributing to significant and evolving changes in the way the hydrologic corollaries of urbanization are understood and addressed. In depth, the various features included in the VUSP (a stormwater wetland, an infiltration trench, a bioinfiltration island, etc.) are the subjects of individual and detailed research studies. The example considered in this paper, the bioinfiltration traffic island, has been investigated using a soils-based method for quantifying the process of infiltration occurring over a wide range of environmental conditions. The inquiry suggests new approaches for integrating stormwater systems into sustainable developments.