INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK CITY: APPLYING WATERSHED MODELS IN THE URBAN PARK ENVIRONMENT

A comprehensive Water Quality Management Plan is being prepared for Central Park in New York City. This plan has three objectives: (1) improve water quality, (2) conserve potable water, and (3) reduce discharges from the Park to the combined sewer. To accomplish these goals a series of structural and non-structural best management practices (BMPs) are being proposed. To evaluate the effectiveness of these plans, an integrated model system consisting of a geographic information system (GIS), an overland runoff model (SWMM), and a water quality model (WASP) was developed. Challenges and solutions for simulating the urban park environment, including obtaining large-scale mapping, determining hydrology, estimating pollutant loads, and quantifying maintenance measures within the models, will be discussed. This project has demonstrates that as more large-scale data becomes available, and as we gain a better understanding of the environmental processes that occur within our water bodies and watersheds, we can continue to use our current macro-scale tools (GIS, SWMM, and WASP) to evaluate management decisions for micro-scale areas.