National Stormwater Calculator Helps Manage Stormwater Runoff

As part the of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, EPA this week released the National Stormwater Calculator, as an addition to the administration’s virtual climate resilience toolkit.  The new calculator will help property owners, developers, landscapers, and urban planners make informed land-use decisions to protect local waterways from pollution caused by stormwater runoff.

The calculator, which is phase I of the Stormwater Calculator and Climate Assessment Tool package announced in the President’s Climate Action Plan in June, is a desktop application that estimates the annual amount of stormwater runoff from a specific site, based on local soil conditions, slope, land cover, and historical rainfall records. Users can enter any U.S. location and select different scenarios to learn how specific green infrastructure changes, including inexpensive changes like rain barrels and rain gardens, can prevent pollution. This information helps users determine how adding green infrastructure can be one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce stormwater runoff.  An update to the Stormwater Calculator, which will include the ability to link to several future climate scenarios, will be released by the end of 2013.

More information about the National Stormwater Calculator.

More information about the virtual climate resilience toolkit.

More information on EPA’s Green Infrastructure research.