A Cost Effective Modeling Approach for Targeting the Location of Best Management Practices within a Rapidly Growing Urban Watershed to Achieve Regional Water Quality Standards

Water runoff from residential developments is the third leading source of water pollution in the United States. A linear programming model is developed using nutrient runoff loadings for nitrogen and phosphorous generated by the Reedy River Model Simulation Program to estimate the potential cost savings of using a basin wide targeted approach for the location of best management control practices relative to a uniform control practice that requires each sub-basin within a rapidly grown urban watershed to decrease nitrogen and phosphorous runoff by the same percentage to achieve a downstream water quality target. In one policy scenario the targeted approach reduced control cost at the basin outlet by 42% relative to instituting a uniform control standard in each sub-basin within the watershed.