Stormwater Management Technology: Site & Landscape

This lecture was developed for undergraduate landscape architecture students in LAN 381 – Sustainability Technologies at KMUTT, introducing the principles and practice of stormwater management at the site and landscape scale. The session covers the fundamentals of the hydrologic cycle and how urbanisation disrupts natural drainage processes, leading to flooding, erosion, water quality degradation, and overloaded receiving waters. Students explore key concepts including runoff coefficients, hydrologic soil groups, micro-watershed delineation, and the distinction between retention, detention, and infiltration as design strategies. A range of green infrastructure systems is examined in detail, including bioretention cells, bioswales, constructed wetlands, and permeable pavements, with attention to how each performs in a tropical climate context.

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The lecture also addresses the professional documentation skills required to translate stormwater design intent into buildable outcomes. Students are introduced to grading plans, drainage plans, construction sections, and pipe schedules as the interconnected drawing types that together communicate a complete stormwater system. The session closes with a framework for site analysis, guiding students in reading topography, soil conditions, and existing drainage infrastructure as the foundation for sound BMP selection and placement. Throughout, the course emphasises that effective stormwater design is not a technical afterthought but a core landscape architecture responsibility, one that connects hydrology, ecology, and the design of liveable urban environments.