Connecting the Dots Flooding, Global Warming, Floodplain (Mis)Management, & National Legislation

The United States is getting more heavy storms and major floods these days… To explain the bigger picture and provide recommendations for how to cope with projected changes and how to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, National Wildlife Federation’s mini-report Increased Flooding Risk: Global Warming’s Wake-Up Call for Riverfront Communities details:

• How global warming has caused more heavy rainfall events
• America’s over-reliance on levees and other strategies for taming rivers
• Communities that are on the frontlines
• What must be done to confront the realities of global warming

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Wetlands for Stormwater Management: Constructed and restored wetlands provide water quality benefits, By Margaret Buranen. Wetlands, newly constructed or restored, are playing an important role in sustainable design strategies to manage stormwater. They are integral parts of projects in both urban and open or undeveloped areas around the country. Sometimes wetlands are created to manage stormwater only onsite, but increasingly they are an option where a watershed or portion of one is involved.

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Upcoming Events

The Center for Watershed Protection will be holding a Watershed Institute in Columbia South Caroline September 22-25.  http://www.cwp.org/Calendar/WI09/WI09.html

Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay presents the 2009 Chesapeake Watershed Forum, October 9-11.  The Chesapeake Watershed Forum is an annual conference for watershed organizations and local government officials from around the multi-state Chesapeake Bay region. It is an opportunity to learn the latest scientific techniques in Bay restoration and protection, address specific organizational capacity building needs, focus on regional and watershed-wide needs, network with other watershed organizations, and enjoy the beauty of the watershed.  Registration will open the week of July 20^th. Find out more.

Attention:

The American Society of Civil Engineers’ Environmental & Water Resources Institute has issued a CALL FOR PAPERS:

World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2010: Challenges of Change.

Where: Providence, Rhode Island

When: May 16-20, 2010

What: Join and add your resources to the discussion on technical topics covering research and practice on issues that include:

• Water Distribution Systems

• Watersheds and Watershed Management

• Groundwater

• Education

• Hydraulics and Waterways

• Innovative and Emerging Technology

• Irrigation and Drainage

• Planning and Management

• Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater

Call for Papers: 500 word abstract due Thursday, September 17, 2009.

Click here to submit.

Reminders!

July 20-22: 62^nd Joint Annual Conference at the Ramada Conference Center in State College, PA

July 20-24: 13^th Annual Delaware Estuary Watershed Teacher Workshop on the Delaware River

July 22: Living Streamside: Penny Pack Environmental Center in Philadelphia

admin Weekly News Chesapeake Bay, climate change, flood control, global warming, stormwater, sustainability, waste water, watershed protection, wetlands

Resources Conservation Act - Conservation districts have an important opportunity to provide input into the Resources Conservation Act process through upcoming listening sessions and other avenues. Click here to find out what the RCA means to districts and how you can participate.  Specific topics include:

• The most important natural resource concerns on private lands today and in the coming decade
• Effectiveness of current conservation program approaches (e.g., technical assistance, cost-share, easements, compliance, research, land retirement, locally led conservation) in addressing priority resource concerns
• Alternative program approaches (e.g., environmental service markets, tax credits) to address resource issues.

From the Chesapeake Bay Journal:

MD joins mid-Atlantic states to protect, manage the ocean. A new mid-Atlantic ocean partnership addresses the region’s priority ocean issues including offshore energy, climate change, water quality, and habitat protection.  Read more…

Spring shad numbers up in Susquehanna, down in Potomac.  This spring’s shad runs brought remarkably mixed results-and some new concerns-in the Bay’s tributaries, with some showing increases in migrating shad, while others stayed the same or declined.  Read more…

Upcoming events

Mark Your Calendar! The Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts and the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission are holding their 62^nd Joint Annual Conference at the Ramada Conference Center in State College, PA, July 20-22, 2009.  Click here for details!

Attention Engineers: The American Society of Civil Engineers is holding two water management conferences in 2010 and have issued a CALL FOR PAPERS.

Watershed 2010: Innovations in Watershed Management Under Land Use and Climate Change

• Where: Madison Wisconsin
• When: August 23-27, 2010
• What: The conference will highlight innovative approaches for managing water resources under climate and land use change. Topics include:
  • Hydrologic measurement and modeling
  • Integrated and/or adaptive water management
  • Aquatic ecosystem restoration
  • Risk based design
  • The use of regional predictions of climate change
• Call for Papers: One-page abstract due August 12, 2009. Click for a list of topics.  Submit electronically via the conference website.

2010 International Low Impact Development Conference: Redefining Water in the City

• Where: San Francisco, California
• When: April 11-14, 2010
• What: Conference will highlight new and continuing work including research, developments, and community adoption of LID throughout the United States and internationally. Objectives include:
  • To continue to promote the use of LID as an effective alternative for traditional stormwater management
  • To examine successful watershed management practices related to stream restoration and hydromodification
  • To inform practitioners throughout the country on how to anticipate and address impediments for implementation of these techniques to accelerate change in the practice of stormwater management, including an information exchange to refine design processes, review procedures, and construction standards related to LID technologies
  • To improve our collective understanding of how vegetation helps manage stormwater, intercept precipitation, expand urban greenspace, and improve urban livability
  • To consider how changes in the traditional urban drainage design paradigm mesh with ideas of sustainability and green building and help create a constituency for more livable, more sustainable cities
• Call for Papers: 500 word abstract due August 12, 2009.  For submission guidelines and topics click here.

admin Weekly News Chesapeake Bay, clean water, conservation district, green building, LID, stormwater best management practices, sustainability, water quality, watershed protection