Climate Change, Urban Development, and Storm Water: Perspectives from the Field

Climate projections in many U.S. metropolitan areas show increases in daily temperature, and potential shifts in rainfall patterns toward stronger, more intense storms. At the same time, metropolitan regions continuing to experience population growth face the prospect of areal expansion and higher land-use intensities. The possible coupling of such developmental changes and more frequent intense precipitation events poses a litany of well-known challenges to storm-water management. This paper reports survey research that examines the experiences and expectations of engineers, planners, and other agency staff in storm-water management in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan region in the context of climate change. We find that staff from jurisdictions with a high degree of development and strong population growth, and those with more work experience, engagement with climate issues in their work, and greater belief that scientists understand climate change, exhibit a higher level of concern with the potential threat of climate change on storm water runoff.