Stormwater, Trees, and the Urban Environment

As part of our Blue Cities Initiative, CRWA is actively promoting the use of LID BMPs in our watershed and beyond. The following paper offers a comparison of one stormwater BMP, the stormwater tree pit, with a traditional Boston street tree. CRWA hopes this document will be useful to municipal stormwater officials as well as urban foresters, developers, planners, engineers and conservation agents working in urban and ultra-urban environments. Through our experience working on environmentally sensitive design projects, CRWA has learned that while stormwater control is often the responsibility of a single municipal agency, the use of certain LID stormwater treatment practices can accomplish many goals, reaching well beyond stormwater management; therefore inter-agency coordination can maximize the benefits and possibly help fund installation and maintenance of stormwater BMPs. This analysis is intended as a general reference article, and provides broad conceptual level information. It is not a design document or how-to manual. Site specific information is critical to the success of stormwater tree planters and officials looking to design and install stormwater tree pits will need to consult other sources for design and installation details.