Data Collection and Urban Watershed Modeling of St. Louis Bioretention Areas

The lack of a national standard for bioretention area design and maintenance is due to multiple factors, including the natural variation between regions. To understand the factors impacting performance of bioretention projects within the St. Louis area, data collection and watershed modeling will be conducted at selected bioretention sites. The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) currently evaluates bioretention areas by utilizing a maintenance inspection checklist to compute a score which rates the performance of a site. Owners with bioretention areas registered through MSD will be invited to participate in a special site evaluation, where sites will be: 1) scored using the MSD maintenance inspection checklist, 2) assessed for site properties using both in situ permeability testing, and assorted lab analysis from collected soil samples, and 3) modeled for their hydrology using an urban rainfall-runoff model with historic rainfall values. The results from the field evaluation laboratory testing, and modeling, will be analyzed to determine what factors lead to successful bioretention solutions.