Expanding impermeable surfaces has increased localized flooding and stormwater management challenges in cities, suburban areas, and small towns. Green stormwater infrastructure can reduce stormwater runoff through infiltration, storage, and evapotranspiration; however, these installations have high variability in hydrologic performance. By combining field-collected native soils data, modeling, and surface design, this work rethinks green stormwater infrastructure in place through community research co-creation with quantitative evaluation of green stormwater infrastructure performance in context. Probabilistic models predict green stormwater infrastructure failure based on variability in space and time. Results indicate that green stormwater infrastructure can function reliably in combination with grey infrastructure under a wide range of conditions, with important environmental justice considerations in sustainable stormwater management.
Dr. Ashlynn S. Stillwell is an Associate Professor and the Elaine F. and William J. Hall Excellence Faculty Scholar in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on creating sustainable water and energy systems in a policy-relevant context. She earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri (2006), and an M.S. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering (2010), M.P.Aff in Public Affairs (2010), and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (2013) from The University of Texas at Austin. Her previous work experience includes consulting engineering at Burns & McDonnell (2006-2007) and policy research at the Congressional Research Service (2009). Dr. Stillwell received the National Science Foundation CAREER award and the UCOWR Early Career Award for Applied Research for her research work on the energy-water nexus. She was honored with the 2015 Girl Scouts of Central Illinois Woman of Distinction Award in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, the 2018 Rose Award for Teaching Excellence, and the 2018 AEESP Award for Outstanding Teaching in Environmental Engineering and Science. Dr. Stillwell has also been among the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students at Illinois. She previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors for Girl Scouts of Central Illinois and Faith in Place.