The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides detailed information about the National Flood Insurance Program, both generally and specifically for claims adjusters, property owners, insurance professionals, lenders, state and local officials, and surveyors.

This report, Banking on Green: How Green Infrastructure Saves Municipalities Money and Provides Economic Benefits Community-wide, helps quantify and support the economic case for Green Infrastructure.

The Huron River Watershed Council provides a clear explanation of the differences between Low Impact Development and Green Infrastructure.

This EPA site provides more details about green streets, including research reports supporting their benefits.

This information from the Environmental Protection Agency includes details about the history and implementation of the Clean Water Act.

The City of Lenexa, Kansas, supports their Rain to Recreation program with a number of revenue streams. The systems development fee has been in place for more than a decade. This is a one-time fee paid by a developer at the time of permitting. The funds are used to recover the costs of expanding infrastructure systems to account for the impact of growth created by new and redevelopment. This case study describes the process of developing the fee and outlines the cost reductions it was able to produce.

The Environmental Finance Center worked with several municipalities in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to recommend a sustainable financing approach to help meet their stormwater management goals. In one municipality, Warwick Township, it was found that the cost to replace their gray infrastructure storm sewer pipe system would be over $1.9 million in 30 years. However, the cost to maintain and renovate all municipally owned BMPs over 20 years through an established asset management program would be just over $260,000. That’s a savings of almost $1.6 million.

Once a community has installed infrastructure to handle its stormwater, the next step is to manage the infrastructure in the best way possible to ensure the assets are kept in proper operational order, will last as long as possible, and are replaced when necessary. This type of management is called “Asset Management.” Asset Management represents a way of thinking about assets in a strategic way so that they are sustained over the long-term at the lowest overall life cycle cost while meeting the needs of the community.

This issue brief from the Environmental Finance Center Network (EFCN) is intended for town officials who want to understand how development regulations in their community affect local water resources. Municipal development codes –the set of regulations that control the built environment – can have a great influence on the availability of clean and healthy water for drinking, recreation, and commercial uses. This, in turn, affects the community’s social, environmental, and economic vitality.

Your level of service can be thought of as how well you are currently meeting the requirements of your stormwater program. For example, if you are only prioritizing and cleaning your stormwater inlets based on complaints then this would be a “minimal” level of service. A “medium” level of service may be that you are inspecting and cleaning your stormwater outfalls once a year or slightly above the inspection rate outlined in your permit.