SUSTAIN — An Evaluation and Cost-Optimization Tool for Placement of BMPs

To assist stormwater management professionals in planning for best management practices (BMPs) implementation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is developing a decision-support system for placement of BMPs at strategic locations in urban watersheds. This tool will help develop, evaluate, select, and place BMP options based on cost and effectiveness. The system was formerly called the Integrated Stormwater Management Decision Support Framework (ISMDSF), but will be tentatively called the System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis INtegration (SUSTAIN). SUSTAIN, a generic public domain framework, will provide a means for objective analysis of management alternatives among multiple interacting and competing factors. The desired outcome from the system application is a thorough, practical, and informative assessment considering economic, environmental, and engineering factors. SUSTAIN has seven key components: framework manager, ArcGIS interface, watershed model, BMP model, optimization model, post-processor, and Microsoft Access database. They are integrated under a common ArcGIS platform. SUSTAIN supports evaluation of BMP placement at multiple scales from a few city blocks to large watersheds.