SEIDP

Stormwater Environmental Indicators Demonstration Project

Photo by Maya Hayden

Under a grant from the Water Environment Research Foundation, the Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program (SCVURPPP) tested 20 of the Center for Watershed Protection’s (CWP's) 26 Environmental Indicators to Assess Stormwater Programs and Practices. The CWP recommended using programmatic and social indicators, in addition to measures of water quality and biological health, to gauge the effectiveness of urban stormwater programs.

SCVURPPP applied the indicators at two geographic scales: the 310-square-mile watershed of Coyote Creek and a 28-acre industrial catchment in the City of Santa Clara.

The project included preparation of 15 technical memoranda describing methods, results and conclusions and evaluating the individual indicators and the CWP's methodology. Project planning began in 1997. Field work was conducted in 1998 and 1999.

A final report was published by the Water Environment Research Foundation in 2001.

As Principal Investigator, Dan Cloak designed the approach for testing and evaluating the indicators, directed SCVURPPP staff assigned to the project, managed subcontractors, edited all work products, and was responsible for the project schedule and budget ($560,000+).

This page makes the SEIDP work products accessible. The following products are available here:

Papers

Two years after the project was completed, the Water Environment Research Foundation asked Dan to address a workshop for urban stormwater managers. That paper, titled “Using Indicators to Improve Your Stormwater Program,” summarizes the lessons of the SEIDP that are most useful to urban stormwater managers.
The major findings of the SEIDP are summarized in two papers published in the proceedings of the Water Environment Federation's WEFTEC 2000 conference in Anaheim, CA. One paper presented the results of the indicator testing; the other, an analysis of how the results were applied to urban runoff management in the Santa Clara Valley.

Final Report

A draft of the project report is here, or read the Executive Summary here. The final report was published as: Environmental Indicators: A Useful Tool for Assessing Stormwater Programs? by the Water Environment Research Foundation.

Technical Memoranda

The 15 Technical Memoranda provide a detailed analysis of each indicator, including references. (Links to Acrobat files).

Text, images, design, CSS all by Dan Cloak. Comments? email me!