The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created a new Web-based tool to provide storm water professionals with easy access to approximately 220 studies that assess the performance of more than 275 storm water best management practices (BMPs).

The tool provides access to studies covering a variety of traditional and low-impact BMP types, including retention and detention ponds, biofilters, grassed filter strips, porous pavement, wetlands and others. Users will also find a series of essays aimed at improving understanding of BMP performance and the importance of volume reduction/infiltration in these assessments.

The EPA plans to add more studies over the coming year, focusing on expanding the collection of studies of low-impact development or green infrastructure BMPs.

The urban BMP performance tool can be accessed at http://www.epa.gov/ npdes/urbanbmptool.

Source: U.S. EPA