Investigating Whether or Not Constructed Stormwater Wetlands Need Maintenance to Sustain Performance and the Effect of Vegetation Occupancy in the Designed Storage Volume

Stormwater wetlands (CSWs) have become one of the more popular SCMs, offering a hybrid between larger detention technologies such as wet ponds and newer green infrastructure technologies. A well-functioning stormwater wetland will be a resilient, diverse ecosystem that includes many plant and animal species. This research looks to investigate whether or not wetlands need regular maintenance to sustain their treatment capacity. The research site is located in River Bend, NC. Flow-weighted samples, rainfall, and hydrologic data are being collected at both the inlet and outlet from April 2012 - April 2013, aiming a minimum of 15 storms spaced throughout the year. Monitoring of phosphorus deposition consists of taking soil samples and analyzing for Soil Test Phosphorous. These monitoring results will be compared with the results of a study that was conducted at the same site for a one-year period immediately following construction completion. This will allow researchers to see the effects of no maintenance plan (or activity) and time on wetland performance in removing phosphorus and achieving other wetland performance goals. Vegetation in a CSW is essential for nutrient removal and thermal pollution reduction. However, a portion of the storage volume designed to retain the water quality event is occupied by vegetation, which may result in the CSW being undersized from a hydrologic perspective - especially in unmaintained, mature systems. The fraction of the volume associated with vegetation mass was unknown, and designers have been unsure as to (1) how they should account for volume occupied by vegetation and (2) whether this was a significant design issue. Twelve stormwater wetlands and one hybrid wet pond in North Carolina were sampled to assess their percent vegetative occupancy by volume. A conservative recommended factor of safety is 1.025. Species-specific factors of safety (FOS) were also calculated; at the 30 cm temporary pool elevation, the Iris (Iris spp.) FOS was highest at 1.020 and the mixed vegetation FOS was lowest at 1.005. When designing a wetland, a more specific FOS may be calculated using a weighted average of the FOS for each species in the planting plan. The outcomes of this research allow designers to account for the volume taken up by emergent wetland vegetation; however, the uncertainty in other factors such as discrepancies between designed and as-built bathymetry probably have a greater impact on the design volume loss when compared with vegetation occupancy (<2%).