Forging the Link: Linking the Economic Benefits of Low Impact Development and Community Decisions
This project documents, through a series of case studies, the advantages of Low Impact Development (LID) in the economic terms of how municipal land use decisions are commonly made.
In addition to the environmental and water quality benefits for which Low Impact Development (LID) is so commonly known, considerable economic, infrastructure, and adaptation planning benefits are also being realized through the incorporation of LID-based strategies. Forging the Link demonstrates the substantive economic benefits—for both construction budgets and project life-cycle costs—that are increasingly being observed by municipalities, commercial developers, and others when using Green Infrastructure for stormwater management. The FTL curriculum demonstrates the use of LID as a means for building community resiliency to changing climates in a water resources management context.
The FTL Curriculum demonstrates:
- The ecological benefits of LID with respect to protection of water quality, aquatic habitat and watershed health
- The economic benefits of using both traditional and innovative infrastructure to manage stormwater
- The capability of LID to be used as a climate change adaptation planning tool to minimize the stress to urban stormwater infrastructure.
Links to of FTL Materials and Resources can be found below
FTL Team Members and Contacts
Project Investigators and Contributing Authors
Robert M. Roseen, Ph.D. P.E., D.WREDirector, The UNH Stormwater Center
Environmental Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering,
35 Colovos Road, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824
Phone: 603-862-4024 Fax: 603-862-3957 email: Robert.roseen@unh.edu Todd V. Janeski
Environmental Scientist, Virginia Commonwealth University
Trani Center for Life Sciences
1000 West Cary St, PO Box 843050, Richmond VA 23284-3050
Phone: (804) 371.8984 Fax: (804)786-1798 e-mail: tvjaneski@vcu.edu James J. Houle, CPSWQ
Outreach Coordinator and Program Manager, The UNH Stormwater Center
Environmental Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering
35 Colovos Road, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824
Phone: 603-767-7091 Fax: 603-862-3957 email: james.houle@unh.edu Michael H. Simpson
Chair, Environmental Studies Department
Antioch University New England
Keene, NH USA 03431 Jeff Gunderson
Professional Content Writer
Portland, OR 97209
Email: jeffgun@earthlink.net
Publication Design and Production
Tricia Miller, MillerworksPortsmouth, NH 03801
