NYC’s Green Infrastructure Research & Development Project – Monitoring Strategy and Protocols

NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is implementing the Green Infrastructure Research and Development (GI-RD) Project to support the City's strategy to manage stormwater through low impact development technologies. The GI-RD project builds upon previous green infrastructure (GI) monitoring activities on bioretention, porous pavement, wetlands, and blue/green roofs. The project includes laboratory bench scale and field experiments, which quantify the variability and obtain a range of desired information for both stormwater performance and ecosystem services. The project uses a data transmission and storage plan that facilitates realtime viewing, analysis, reporting, and adaptive management. Monitoring activities to-date indicate that the factors which contribute to GI performance (e.g. hydraulic and sediment loading rates) are variable, suggesting implicit variability in stormwater capture performance of even similarly designed GI facilities. Analysis of data collected also supports a better understanding of the factors that affect performance and provide guidance for the long-term GI implementation process.