Abstract
Water Management decisions shape infrastructure and determine environmental and regional sustainability. My capstone project is a land development project for Martha Jefferson Hospital. My particular part focused on stormwater management and detention design to meet regulatory requirements in Virginia. The goal was to understand the process of stormwater management, meet flood control, energy balance, and regulatory compliance. For my thesis side decided to look into water management policies between Virginia and North Carolina. The purpose was to see how policy decisions impact environmental outcomes. Both projects were connected through the focus on water systems and how the technical and political decisions affect environmental outcomes. I was able to see the technical side through my Capstone emphasis on engineering design. However, my STS research highlights the policy frameworks that influence those designs and their effectiveness.
With any land development project, there is an increase in urbanization, which leads to higher runoff, greater flooding risk, and additional strain on existing stormwater infrastructure. In the state of Virginia, it is required to regulate this additional runoff and velocity to prevent downstream damage. To meet these requirements, we had to ensure that post-development discharge did not exceed pre-development conditions. The main way we approached this in our capstone project was through the design of an underground detention system. This system reduces energy by temporarily storing runoff and slowing velocities before releasing water into existing inlets. By doing this, it helps manage both flow rate and energy within the system. Initially, we also explored designing a control structure whose main role is to dissipate energy and prevent high-energy flows from causing erosion in downstream water bodies.
Since this was our first time attempting this type of design, achieving energy balance was challenging. However, we were able to successfully meet flood channel protection requirements, which apply to larger storm events and are primarily controlled by the storage volume of the detention system. Overall, these strategies supported Virginia flood protection requirements by reducing peak flow and limiting erosion potential. Through this project, we learned that a properly designed detention system can significantly reduce peak flow and improve overall system performance. It was also important to capture as much impervious area as possible to help reduce runoff velocity. Additionally, we found that incorporating an orifice can further control discharge and assist in regulating flow rates.
My STS thesis focused on how water management policies differ between Virginia and North Carolina, and the impacts these differences have on surrounding water bodies and overall water quality. This is important because water policy directly affects environmental outcomes, infrastructure design, and communities. Understanding these differences helps engineers better navigate the policies they are required to design under, while also recognizing that these policies shape the effectiveness of their work. Ultimately, engineers follow the regulations put in place, so those policies must be well-informed and consider their long-term impacts. By comparing two states with different regulatory approaches and examining case studies, I was able to analyze how each state manages stormwater and how those decisions influence water quality.
To support this analysis, I examined differences in regulatory structure, implementation, and enforcement between the two states using their respective stormwater management programs and design manuals. I also used data and reports from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to compare water quality outcomes. Overall, I found that Virginia tends to have more structured stormwater requirements, which results in stricter and more consistent design approaches. Their methods of data collection are also more organized, making it easier to track improvements or declines in water quality over time. In contrast, North Carolina showed more variation in implementation, which affected consistency, and there was less clear evidence of long-term water quality trends. These differences demonstrate that policy directly impacts engineering practices, and that effective water management depends on both strong technical design and well-developed policy frameworks.
