Water quality

Overview

Improvements in the quality of stormwater runoff is one of the primary benefits of low impact development strategies.

Nutrients

Plants (including algae) require three macro nutrients to grow: Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Of these three, phosphorus is the often the "growth-limiting" nutrient. i.e. the local environment may have an abundance of nitrogen and potassium, but algae won't develop unless phosphorus is available too. Phosphorus

See Also

Winter

External Links

• Environment Canada on Phosphorus and Excess Algal Growth
• Lake Simcoe phosphorus reduction strategy

The portion of water precipitated onto a catchment area, which then flows as surface discharge from the catchment area past a specified point.

Water from rain, snow melt, or irrigation that flows over the land surface.

A stormwater management strategy that seeks to mitigate the impacts of increased urban runoff and stormwater pollution by managing it as close to its source as possible. It comprises a set of site design approaches and small scale stormwater management practices that promote the use of natural systems for infiltration and evapotranspiration, and rainwater harvesting.

Refers to the conditions in which an organism lives and survives or the conditions in which an organism resides. These conditions can be described as aspects of a “physical”, “social” or an “economic” environment, depending on the perspective perceived by the observer.