Urban BMP Performance Tool

This Urban Stormwater BMP Performance Tool has been developed to provide stormwater professionals with easy access to approximately 220 studies assessing the performance of over 275 BMPs. Additional studies will be added to this collection periodically. This Tool presents information previously compiled by the International Stormwater BMP Database and by the State of California in an easy to use search and sort format. In the future, EPA hopes to add more studies to this collection, particularly ones that evaluate the performance of "green infrastructure" or "low impact development" BMPs.

Bioretention area treating runoff from a parking lot

Choosing effective stormwater BMPs is one of the key challenges facing anyone interested in improving or protecting the quality of our rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. Having access to studies of BMP performance that have been conducted by public agencies, academic researchers, non-profit groups, and others will help make better decisions. This tool provides access to summary information on studies that have been published in recognized journals or that have met detailed criteria established by EPA. This tool is not a statistical analysis of the data and, as such, the numbers presented should not be the sole basis for selecting BMPs. The purpose of this tool is to give users an easy to use website to access, read, and explore the literature on BMP performance. EPA hopes that this information will be used to conduct more thorough considerations of BMP selection and placement.

Anyone involved in the process of selecting BMPs to manage stormwater should consider a wide variety of factors, including pollutant removal potential, stormwater volume reduction, installation considerations (soils, slopes, and climate and rainfall patterns), capital costs, maintenance costs, and other factors. These studies can help provide some of this information so that BMPs are appropriate for the site and will contribute to meet the water quality objectives of the watersheds in which they are located.

In order to provide users with some important background information on how to use and interpret this data, please read the following essays:

• Three Keys to BMP Performance – Concentration, Volume, and Total Load
  • Why “Percent (%) Removal” is a Poor Measure of BMP Performance
  • Why Volume Reduction is Essential to Evaluating BMP Performance
• Understanding the Information Presented About Each Study (Quality, Concentration, Volume, Statistical Summaries, etc.)

• Begin Searching the Urban BMP Performance Tool