How Poor Stormwater Practices Are Shortening the Life of Our Nation's Infrastructure--Recalibrating Stormwater Management for Stream Channel Stability and Infrastructure Sustainability

Civil engineers provide services aimed at meeting society's primary infrastructure needs in a safe and cost-effective manner. In most cases, work in one discipline does not adversely affect the value or sustainability of the resources and services in other disciplines. However, in the field of stormwater management, a case can be made that the opposite is true. Conventional stormwater management is widely documented as a primary driver of stream channel instability, which, in turn, causes adverse impacts to adjacent infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and utility lines. The fact that design decisions in one field result in a shortened design life of public/private assets from other disciplines is by definition unsustainable. Moreover, what's bad for our nation's infrastructure is also detrimental to the quality and biotic integrity of our water resources. By compiling available cost data of infrastructure damages attributable to channel instability in a Northern Kentucky case study, this paper underscores the business case for a recalibration of stormwater management for stream channel stability and infrastructure sustainability.