Editorial

The practice of storm-water management has evolved from a flood control focus to the mitigation of the effects of urbanization on our rivers and watersheds. This sudden and dramatic shift in expectations has resulted in a new generation of engineering tools, incorporating everything from management techniques and source controls to reuse, green roofs, and bioretention. Our understanding of and ability to predict their performance is emerging and therefore creating a need for supporting scholarly discussion. This issue of the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering is devoted to this evolving field of storm-water sustainability.

The 17 papers in this special issue reflect this evolution. Topics range from site management and design considerations to in-depth investigations of the processes controlling the observed behavior of treatment practices. Management practice papers include TMDLs, credit trading, pollutant sources and control, and integrated watershed management. Treatment papers start with updated results from the International BMP Database, and continue through storm-water wetlands and ponds, friction courses, permeable pavement, and bioretention. Soil infiltration with accompanying pollutant removal is the subject of several papers. Clearly not all areas of storm-water management are addressed, and a need remains to continue this scholarly discovery and discussion.

This effort is a result of collaboration between the Storm-Water Infrastructure Committee and Urban Water Resources Research Council, together with the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering Publications Committee. Conference proceedings from recent EWRI congresses and LID conferences were reviewed, and a select group of authors was invited to expand and revise their work. These papers passed through the standard journal peer-review process. We hope that this set of papers is of use to the profession. We would like to thank all the contributing authors, the reviewers, and William Ritter, as editor, for their efforts in this special issue.