A comprehensive stormwater management plan: opportunities to incorporate stormwater wetlands into the University of Puerto Rico stormwater management program
Author
Jordan Gomez, Tamaris
Advisor
Ríos Dávila, Rafael A.Type
ThesisDegree Level
M.A.Date
2022-08-29Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The environment is continuously deteriorating due to the presence of human activity and
the permanent landscape alterations that compromise the ecosystem. One of these
practices is the discharge of large volumes of untreated stormwater into receiving natural
bodies of water. In addition to questionable stormwater discharge practices, rainwater
that is not redirected and cannot infiltrate through the impervious surfaces then
accumulates and produces floods that threaten the environment and humans as well.
Conventional methods of stormwater management exist that are widely used around the
world; however, new eco-friendly alternative methods mainly in the form of green
infrastructure have been used for the same purpose, namely, constructed wetlands that
are being proposed in this thesis. The objective of this study is the design of a constructed
wetland system to manage stormwater originating from the UPRRP campus that can host
13,000 students as well as 4,000 faculty and staff. The idea is that the stormwater flow
would be redirected into strategically placed constructed wetlands within the UPRRP
campus to provide pre-treatment and flow control. The runoff that is not retained in these
stormwater wetland cells is then discharged into the conventional stormwater
management infrastructure the UPRRP uses. Last, but not least, an evaluation was
conducted to determine the cost a project of this magnitude would amount to.