Urban Best Management Practices

Prevention and Management

  1. Communication
  2. Conservation education
  3. Conservation ordinances
  4. Conservation development
  5. Develop a Watershed Conservation Plan

Surface Water Protection (Streams and wetlands)

  1. Alternatives to reservoir construction
  2. Constructed wetlands
  3. Infiltration, filtration, detention, and retention systems
  4. Proper application of chemicals
  5. Proper disposal and storage of chemicals
  6. Riparian buffers
  7. Riparian setbacks
  8. Stormwater management

Groundwater Protection

  1. Infiltration, filtration, detention, and retention systems
  2. Proper application of chemicals
  3. Proper disposal and storage of chemicals
  4. Well plugging
  5. Stormwater management

Aquatic Habitat Protection and Restoration

  1. Alternatives to reservoir construction
  2. Constructed wetlands
  3. Instream habitat restoration
  4. Limit construction in floodplains through ordinances , riparian buffer zones , riparian setbacks , or conservation development
  5. Prevent habitat fragmentation
  6. Protect and/or restore urban streams to natural state
  7. Texas Invasives
  8. Aquatic Invasives
  9. Stopping Invasives

Riparian Habitat Protection

Revegetation and Erosion Control

  1. Bank toe protection and revetments
  2. Brush or vegetation mats
  3. Brush layering
  4. Branch packing
  5. Coir fiber logs
  6. Constructed wetlands
  7. Cuttings, transplants, and seeding
  8. Erosion control blanket and mulches
  9. Fascines, bundles, wattles
  10. Infiltration, filtration, detention, and retention systems
  11. Live siltation
  12. Live slope grating
  13. Protection or revegetation of native species
  14. Rainwater harvesting
  15. Riparian buffers
  16. Rootwad composites
  17. Sediment barriers (barriers, berms, fences, and wattles)
  18. Vegetated cribbing

Upland Habitat Protection

  1. Conservation development
  2. Conservation easement
  3. Ordinances
  4. Prevent habitat fragmentation
  5. Proper application of chemicals
  6. Proper disposal and storage of chemicals
  7. Protection or revegetation of native species
  8. Texas Invasives
  9. Aquatic Invasives
  10. Stopping Invasives

Residential and Commercial

  1. Communication
  2. Conservation development
  3. Conservation education
  4. Constructed wetlands
  5. Infiltration, filtration, detention, and retention systems
  6. Irrigation management
  7. Low flow fixtures
  8. Ordinances
  9. Pet waste disposal
  10. Proper application of chemicals
  11. Proper disposal and storage of chemicals
  12. Protection or revegetation of native species
  13. Rainwater harvesting
  14. Using native vegetation for landscaping
  15. Riparian buffers
  16. Well plugging

Utilities

  1. Constructed wetlands
  2. Denitrification (and other nutrient) systems
  3. Inspect, update, maintain septic systems
  4. Monitor water quality for septic discharges and failing septic systems
  5. Stormwater management
  6. Phosphorus detergent restrictions
  7. Update and maintain wastewater treatment systems and facilities

Construction

Urban Bibliography

  • Benke et al. 1981. Effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems. Georgia Environmental Resources Center Report ERC 07-81.
  • Bledsoe and Watson. 2001. Effects of urbanization on channel instability. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 37: 255-270.
  • Booth et al. 2004. Reviving urban streams: land use, hydrology, biology, and human behavior. Journal of the Americal Water Resources Association XX:1351-1364.
  • Brown et al. 2005. Introduction to effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems. American Fisheries Society 47: 1-8.
  • Chadwick et al. 2006. Urbanization affects stream ecosystem function by altering hydrology, chemistry, and biotic richness. Ecological Applications 16: 1796-1807.
  • Jones and Clark. 1987. Impact of watershed urbanization on stream insect communities. Journal of the Americal Water Resources Association 23: 1047-1055.
  • Klein. 1979. Urbanization and stream quality impairment. Journal of the American Resources Association 15: 948-963.
  • May et al. 1997. Effects of urbanization on small streams in the Puget Sound ecoregion. Watershed Protection Techniques 2: 483-494.
  • Morse et al. 2003. Impervious surface area as a predictor of the effects of urbanization on stream insect communities in Maine, U.S.A. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 89: 95-127.
  • Paul and Meyer. 2001. Streams in the urban landscape in Urban Ecology pp 207-231.
  • Walsh et al. 2005. The urban stream syndrome: current knowledge and the search for a cure. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 24: 706-723.
  • Wang et al. 2001. Impacts of urbanization on stream habitat and fish across multiple spatial scales. Environmental Management 28: 255-266.