Residential Manmade Lake System Design for Storm Water Treatment

Manmade lake facilities have traditionally been considered ornamental and landscape features primarily serving aesthetic purposes in golf courses, parks and residential developments. However, properly design lake system can be applied with innovative design elements to function as primary infrastructure facilities in urban developments, replacing typical stormwater facilities and adding value to the community. These specialized types of manmade lake systems integrate a living ecosystem into an urban environment, which maintains water quality through natural biological processes. Planned lake features integrated into the land plan, particularly in semi-arid areas, offer a combination of many unique advantages for storm water management as well as other benefits that are not available in conventional engineered systems, including: (1) continuous year-round natural treatment process, (2) storm water conveyance and storage, (3) exceptional water quality, (4) flood protection, (5) combined landuse elements, (6) significantly reduced infrastructure costs, (7) dry weather flow treatment, (8) landscape and aesthetic treatment with natural water system, (9) increased surrounding land values, (10) natural ecosystem benefits, (11) recreational design feature, and (12) urban design element for communities.