This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center | |
|---|---|
| Name | University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center |
| Formation | 1991 |
| Location | Durham, New Hampshire, United States |
| Parent organization | University of New Hampshire |
| Focus | Stormwater research, Best Management Practices, training |
University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center is a research and training unit located at the University of New Hampshire campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It operates as a hub for applied hydrology investigations, environmental engineering training, and stormwater best management practice testing that serves regional and national practitioners. The Center collaborates with federal agencies, state agencies, municipal governments, and private firms to advance water quality improvements and infrastructure resilience.
The Center was established in the early 1990s as part of the University of New Hampshire's outreach and applied research efforts following regional concerns about nonpoint source pollution, Clean Water Act implementation, and urban watershed impacts. Founding activities drew on expertise from the University's departments linked to Civil Engineering, Natural Resources, and Earth Sciences, and engaged state agencies such as the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and federal partners including the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Over subsequent decades the Center expanded its scope to include long-term monitoring projects, performance evaluations of green infrastructure inspired by innovations in Low Impact Development and Sustainable Sites, and technical training aligned with standards developed by organizations like the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Society of Wetland Scientists.
The Center's mission centers on applied research into stormwater management, performance evaluation of best management practice installations, and the translation of science to practitioners in municipalities such as Manchester, New Hampshire and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Research programs examine hydrologic monitoring, pollutant load quantification, cold-climate performance of green infrastructure, and life-cycle assessments connected to standards from the International Stormwater BMP Database and criteria used by the United States Geological Survey. Interdisciplinary teams include faculty from the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, researchers linked to the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, and graduate students supported by partnerships with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission.
The Center maintains instrumented test plots, constructed bioretention cells, permeable pavement installations, and monitoring laboratories on the Durham campus and at satellite sites in the Seacoast Region. Facilities include automated samplers, flow rating systems, and analytical capabilities comparable to those used by laboratories at the United States Army Corps of Engineers and academic centers such as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Training courses offered cover stormwater design, inspection, operation and maintenance, and permit compliance; these courses are delivered to audiences from local municipal staff, consulting firms, and state regulators including attendees from the New Hampshire Municipal Association and the Society for Ecological Restoration.
The Center has led and partnered on projects ranging from municipal retrofit demonstrations in Concord, New Hampshire to watershed-scale assessments in collaboration with the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership and the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. National collaborations have included cooperative studies with the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water and research exchanges with universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Industry partnerships involve manufacturers of permeable pavement, infiltration media suppliers, and engineering firms active in stormwater markets; grant and contract work has linked the Center with the National Science Foundation and regional foundations engaged in coastal resilience initiatives.
Outreach activities include continuing education workshops, online webinars tailored for municipal stormwater managers, and curriculum contributions to undergraduate and graduate programs in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire. The Center produces technical reports, training manuals, and open datasets used by practitioners from towns like Dover, New Hampshire and industry stakeholders including consulting companies and manufacturers. Public engagement events have been co-sponsored with groups such as the Great Bay Alliance and regional chapters of professional societies like the American Public Works Association to advance community awareness of stormwater impacts on rivers such as the Piscataqua River and estuaries like Great Bay.
Funding for the Center derives from a mix of federal grants from agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation, state contracts with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, municipal service agreements, and private-sector cooperative research. Administrative oversight resides within the University of New Hampshire's Office of Research and Economic Development and academic units including the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with advisory input from municipal stormwater directors and regional organizations like the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission. The Center's governance structure ensures alignment with regulatory frameworks such as standards influenced by the Clean Water Act and technical guidance promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Category:University of New Hampshire Category:Water management