Low Impact Development (LID)

LID is an approach to land development (or re-development) that works with nature to manage stormwater as close to its source as possible. LID employs principles such as preserving and recreating natural landscape features, minimizing effective imperviousness to create functional and appealing site drainage that treat stormwater as a resource rather than a waste product. There are many practices that have been used to adhere to these principles such as bioretention facilities, rain gardens, vegetated rooftops, rain barrels, and permeable pavements. By implementing LID principles and practices, water can be managed in a way that reduces the impact of built areas and promotes the natural movement of water within an ecosystem or watershed. Applied on a broad scale, LID can maintain or restore a watershed's hydrologic and ecological functions. LID has been characterized as a sustainable stormwater practice by the Water Environment Research Foundation and others.

LID Works Everywhere

LID can be applied to new development, redevelopment, or as retrofits to existing development. LID has been adapted to a range of land uses from high density ultra-urban settings to low density development.

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Fact Sheets and Reports

• Green Infrastructure Case Studies: Municipal Policies for Managing Stormwater with Green Infrastructure (PDF) (76 pp, 8.2MB, About PDF)
  This report presents the common trends in how 12 local governments developed and implemented stormwater policies to support green infrastructure.
• Reducing Stormwater Costs through Low Impact Development (LID) Strategies and Practices
  This report provides information to cities, counties, states, private-sector developers and others on the costs and benefits of using Low Impact Development (LID) strategies and practices to help protect and restore water quality.
• Low Impact Development (LID) Literature Review and Fact Sheets
  This report, which was developed by EPA in cooperation with the LID Center, contains a summary of the current monitoring and effectiveness data on LID practices. Fact sheets describing four LID case studies are also available.
• Low Impact Development Overview and Examples
  Chapter 12 in the 2001 report Stormwater Strategies: Community Responses to Runoff Pollution by the Natural Resources Defense Council provides an overview of LID and showcases several LID case studies.
• National Menu of Stormwater BMPs: Post-Construction Stormwater Management in New Development and Redevelopment
  Includes fact sheets on best practices for mitigating stormwater impacts from existing urban areas.
• Rooftops to Rivers: Green Strategies for Controlling Stormwater and Combined Sewer Overflows
  National Resources Defense Council policy report that describes ways local decision makers can implement green techniques to reduce the amount of polluted runoff entering local waterways.
• Learn how LID can be used in brownfields situations through the following fact sheets:
  • Design Principles for Stormwater Management on Compacted, Contaminated Soils in Dense Urban Areas (PDF) (4 pp, 809K, About PDF)
    Preparing brownfields for redevelopment often requires capping of contaminated soils, creating even larger impervious surfaces. The challenge for managing stormwater on brownfield sites is allowing this capping while mitigating the impervious surface conditions that can negatively impact local waterways. This report outlines design considerations and general principles for using green infrastructure on brownfield sites, and has a page of additional resources for further consideration.
  • Case Studies for Stormwater Management on Compacted, Contaminated Soils in Dense Urban Areas (PDF) (4 pp, 410K, About PDF)
    Brownfields redevelopment and sustainable stormwater management both produce economic and environmental benefits by improving urban areas, protecting open space and preventing further pollution of the nation’s waters. However, in order to prevent further environmental damage by infiltrating precipitation through contaminated soil, onsite stormwater management must be done carefully, using particular design guidelines. This report contains summaries of projects across the country that have found effective solutions to the challenge of developing a brownfield site with residual contamination, by incorporating appropriate natural systems for stormwater management.

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Design and Guidance Manuals

• Low Impact Development Design Strategies: An Integrated Design Approach (PDF) (150 pp, 7.4MB, About PDF)
  This document was prepared by the Prince George's County Maryland Department of Environmental Resources Programs and Planning Division, with assistance from EPA.
• Low Impact Development Hydrologic Analysis (PDF) (45 pp, 1.4MB, About PDF)
  This document was prepared by the Prince George's County Maryland Department of Environmental Resources Programs and Planning Division, with assistance from EPA. The design charts from the appendices of this document are not available in PDF format at this point in time.
• Low Impact Development Urban Design Tools
  This site, developed through a Cooperative Assistance Agreement under the U.S. EPA Office of Water, provides watershed managers with a new set of tools and techniques that can be used to meet regulatory and receiving water program goals for urban retrofits, redevelopment projects, and new development sites. It features an interactive design page for a range of LID techniques and land uses.
• Low Impact Development Manual (UFC 3-270-10, October, 2004) (PDF) (105 pp, 5.6MB, About PDF)
  This manual was created by the Department of Defense (DoD) United Facilities Criteria (UFC). The UFC provides guidance for integrating LID planning and design into a facility's regulatory and resource protection programs. The UFC applies to Military Departments, Defense Agencies and DoD Field Activities, and will be used for all DoD projects and work for other customers where appropriate.
• Field Evaluation of Permeable Pavements for Stormwater Management (PDF) (2 pp, 48K, About PDF)
  This study demonstrates the potential of permeable pavement systems to restore soil infiltration functions in the urban landscape. Updated information on this topic and related topics is available from the stormwater management page of the Center for Water and Watershed Studies.

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Information Resources and Centers

• EPA New England LID Site
  Learn about Low Impact Development efforts across New England from EPA Region 1.
• Stormwater Management at the EPA Headquarters Office Complex
Web site describing a stormwater management demonstration project at EPA Headquarters.
• Smart Growth and Water: Resources and Tools
  This set of Web pages includes residential and non-residential low impact development tools.
• LID for Big Box Retailers
  Developed with input from a major big box retail corporation, this EPA-funded manual is designed to provide large building and site footprint high volume retailers with strategies that integrate innovative and highly effective LID stormwater management techniques into their site designs for regulatory compliance and natural resource protection.
• 10,000 Rain Gardens
  This is a Seattle/Puget Sound area initiative. 12,000 Rain Gardens is a rain garden campaign to protect the Puget Sound led by Washington State University and Seattle-based Stewardship Partners. The campaign states that "meeting the goal of installing 12,000 rain gardens ...would soak up 160 million gallons of polluted runoff to protect our waterways, significantly helping stop the stormwater crisis that is threatening our waterways.
  
• National Association of Local Government Professionals Web Cast on Low Impact Development and Watershed Management
  Archived webcast on LID strategies, including local government case studies.
• Low Impact Development Center
  The Low Impact Development Center was established to develop and provide information to individuals and organizations dedicated to protecting the environment and water resources through proper site design techniques that replicate pre-existing hydrologic site conditions.
• Using Rainwater to Grow Livable Communities
  Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) developed this comprehensive resource site to encourage sustainable stormwater practices that caters to several distinct audiences of decision makers, engineers and landscape designers. The site includes case studies, an educational toolbox and resource links.
• Puget Sound Low Impact Development
  This site describes low impact development activities occurring in the Puget Sound region of Washington state.
• Green Values Stormwater Toolbox
  This site, hosted by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, features a green values stormwater calculator and other resources related to green infrastructure. It also provides online access to their pocket guide, Water: From Trouble to Treasure.
• Green Infrastructure Public Gallery
  Photo gallery of green infrastructure projects.

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Videos and Other Multi-Media

• RiverSmart Homes: Getting Smart about Runoff in Washington, DC
  This 12-minute video from 2010 highlights RiverSmart Homes, a program that was launched in 2006 by the District Department of the Environment, as a way to combat Washington, D.C.'s serious stormwater problems and to actively involve the community in the river's restoration. Thanks to this unique urban waters partnership, homeowners in diverse city neighborhoods are enthusiastically adopting environmentally friendly landscaping practices to reduce the effects of stormwater runoff and help bring back local rivers and creeks.
• Building Green: A Success Story in Philadelphia
  In 2010, EPA's Office of Water produced this 11-minute video that highlights innovative efforts by green builders in Philadelphia who are helping protect and restore environmental quality and beautify the city. The video features the work of Philadelphia’s Onion Flats LLC, a company that is designing residential buildings with the highest ratings for energy and water efficiency.
  
• Reduce Runoff: Slow It Down, Spread It Out, Soak It In
  In 2009, EPA and the U.S. Botanic Garden produced a 9-minute on-line video that highlights green techniques such as rain gardens, green roofs and rain barrels to help manage stormwater runoff. The film showcases green techniques that are being used in urban areas to reduce the effects of stormwater runoff on the quality of downstream receiving waters.
  
• Reining in the Storm - One Building at a Time
  This engaging 30 minute streaming video explains low impact development to the uninitiated. It is ideally suited for educating local government officials and key decision-makers on the merits of low impact development in a way that breaks down barriers for adoption of these practices and directly addresses real concerns.
  
• From Gray Funnels to Green Sponges
  A Podcast produced by EPA in 2008 with two EPA experts discussing on how to manage rainwater and snow melt where it falls; in ways that can make great places, preserve water quality and restore our nation's waterways.
  
• Watershed Academy Webcasts (also available via iTunes )
  Series includes outstanding archived seminars about Low Impact Development and Green Infrastructure.

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