Design and Advantage of a Bioretention Area as a Best Management Practice for Low Impact Development on The University of Texas at San Antonio

Rainfall on urban areas causes polluted runoff water to contaminate the ground. A bioretention basin can minimize this problem. In this project a bioretention basin was designed for future precipitation changes regarding climate change. The bioretention basin was designed for new development on The University of Texas at San Antonio Main campus and includes an economic analysis comparing three different scenarios regarding media and materials. The basin includes sand and crushed glass as media and Cedar Elm and Muhly grass plants as flora, which are native to San Antonio, to achieve the pollution removal needed. After calculating the drainage area and future average precipitation, the TSS removal required by the BMP was obtained. The equivalent depth, water quality volume treated, and the footprint area were then calculated. Recycled water from a current building at UTSA was tested and was suitable for irrigation. The results were as expected regarding the future average precipitation and the size of the basin.