Low Impact Development, Green Infrastructure, Sustainable Practices

Low impact development (LID) aims to mimic natural hydrology by using small-scale, decentralized techniques that infiltrate, evaporate, and transpire rainwater. The guiding principles of LID are to reduce imperviousness, disconnect imperviousness, conserve natural resources and areas, maintain natural drainage courses, and minimize clearing and grading.

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Practice Specifics

Geosyntec practitioners have designed and integrated a number of innovative system architectures to help clients meet each of these goals. Through the use of the latest green infrastructure (GI) and by implementing new sustainable practices, many of our clients have addressed challenges that previously were intractable, unachievable, or not cost effective using conventional passive solutions.

We provide specialized stormwater and watershed management services for private facilities, large developers, stormwater utilities, and municipal agencies throughout the United States and have implemented many of the nation’s first GI projects. Our stormwater management specialists form one of the leading practices in the country and include individuals whose applied research earned the American Society of Civil Engineers Civil Engineering State-of-the-Art Award and similar accolades at the state and regional level.

Our firm’s efforts in LID are geared to lower costs for stormwater infrastructure and maintenance, improve surface water quality and groundwater recharge, and design an attractive, ecologically functional landscape. We also have incorporated LID approaches into new development and retrofit projects to improve control of both quantity and quality of stormwater.

Geosyntec personnel continuously shape the state of the practice with projects that involve original research, development, and application of LID techniques. Our engineers and scientists are represented on the Board of Directors of the Low Impact Development Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancing LID technology, and maintain joint research projects with civil engineering faculty at leading academic institutions.

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