Enhancing the City of Oaks: An interactive approach to Raleigh Rainwater Rewards
The Raleigh Rainwater Rewards (R3) program, officially named Stormwater Quality Cost Share, was proactively developed in 2009 by the City of Raleigh as a cost sharing mechanism to incentivize property owners within city limits to implement stormwater management on their property, where not otherwise required, to improve stormwater quality. Hazen worked with City staff to document policy history, outline program current practices, and evaluate tracking of key metrics for R3 projects. Throughout this process, Hazen identified key modifications to metrics and recommended changes to further improve consistency across all project types. This included migrating to the NCDEQ SNAP Tool for calculating pollutant removal, reduction of ambiguity within policy language, and streamlining future project reviews by approval authorities. This resulted in an increase in efficiency with project review, consistency across project types, and accuracy with pollutant load reduction. To better understand past, current, and future projects, an interactive dashboard framework was developed. This dashboard is used to communicate comparative costs, pollutant trends, and track project investments throughout Raleigh. Additionally, the dashboard allows City staff to better evaluate capital funds as part of the R3 program while easily presenting information to approval authorities and the general public. Interest and participation have substantially increased in the R3 program since its inception. This growth necessitated enhancements to program procedures to allow for expansion into the future. This presentation will walk through the unique details of the R3 program, enhancements recommended and considered, and applicability of programmatic tracking dashboards for other localities.
Author Bio
Alysondria Eason is a licensed professional engineer with over 12 years of experience. Alysondria currently serves as one of Hazen and Sawyer’s lead engineers for green infrastructure and overall stormwater improvements. Her expertise focuses on localized and area-wide planning, design, tracking, monitoring and implementation of stormwater controls. She has played a key role in Hazen’s stormwater management efforts throughout the United States, including prominent green infrastructure initiatives in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Boston.
