Fifty Years of Innovation in Urban Stormwater Management: Past Achievements and Current Challenges

The past 50 years brought great progress in the management of urban stormwater, characterized by the development of understanding of generation of stormwater runoff and its quality and impacts on receiving waters, and the computer modelling of such processes. This knowledge was used to develop best management practices (BMPs) for impact mitigation. The future research and innovation is likely to follow financial incentives for assessing emerging pollutants and their source controls, stormwater treatment technologies, tools for planning, design and operation of urban drainage systems, and methods for estimating responses of stormwater management systems to a changing climate. As urban drainage and stormwater management issues keep evolving, there will be continuing demands for research targeting such needs.