Skip to main content Skip to footer unit links
← Back to all capstone projects
2013 Spring | Natural Science & Restoration, Policy & Regulation

Stormwater Runoff Management: A Complicated Issue with a Feasible Solution

Student(s):

Amber Johnson

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Misha Vakoc

Partner(s):

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10

Faculty advisor(s):

Miles Logsdon, School of Oceanography, University of Washington

For my project, I created a tool for the Environmental Protection Agency in order to assess the risk to the environment of stormwater runoff pollutants in watersheds. Washington State Department of Transportation submitted a permit application and they asked to monitor two specific outfalls due to ease of access. However I wanted to create an empirical way of deciding which outfalls to monitor based on overall risk of pollutant runoff. Thus, I combined three parameters into a GIS map (Impervious Surfaces, Soil Composition, and slope) to create an overall risk map to show which areas are best to monitor.