Projects
French Broad River Watershed
Education and Training Center
NCSU’s French Broad Training Center has designed and installed demonstration and research projects throughout Western NC to improve water quality, increase habitat and provide safe water access; please click on the links below to learn more about our projects, which were installed, monitored, and interpreted with funding from NC DENR Division of Water Resources, Division of Water Quality-Planning Section’s Nonpoint Source, 319 Grant Program, Pigeon River Fund and partners in Extension, municipal governments, land owners and nonprofit entities Please review the map right to see where all the projects are located. To learn more about our projects, which were installed, monitored, and interpreted with funding from NC DENR Division of Water Resources, Division of Water Quality-Planning Section’s Nonpoint Source, 319 Grant Program, Pigeon River Fund and partners in Extension, municipal governments, land owners and nonprofit entities. |
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— Low Impact Development Stormwater — Stormwater Best Management Practices — Stream Enhancement and Greenways |
Low Impact Development
The purpose of LID is to mimic the natural water cycle of the landscape, reducing the negative impacts of stormwater runoff pollution on streams and rivers. This is achieved through five basic strategies: conserving resources, minimizing impact, optimizing water infiltration, creating areas for localized water storage and treatment, and long term maintenance. These practices are more effective when linked across the landscape, resulting in cumulative water quality impacts.
Click here to learn about low impact development projects. .
Stormwater Best Management Practices
In conventional stormwater management, runoff from impervious surfaces (roadways, paved areas, rooftops, etc) is usually diverted to storm drains and is not treated before it is discharged into streams and rivers. Stormwater runoff often has elevated concentrations of constituents, like sediment, increased temperature, and can scour streambanks, which degrades water quality, negatively impacting environmental quality. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs), intercept this polluted runoff in order to slow, cool, and treat stormwater close to the source.
Click here to learn about more about rain garden, green roof, stormwater wetland, water harvesting, and turf reinforced matted swale projects in Western North Carolina.
StreamEnhancement and Greenways
Streams are the foundation of all aquatic life, providing habitat and food sources for many aquatic organisms such as fish, insects, mollusks, and plants. Streams also provide drinking water for humans, and shape our landscape. Urbanization within a watershed can disrupt natural processes and can lead to increased sedimentation, loss of in-stream habitat, and degradation of water quality. Stream restoration projects help reduce negative impacts from urbanization and enhance water quality and aquatic habitat.
Click here to learn about stream restoration and enhancement, streamside forest, and greenway projects.
PDF of all Projects
Click here ALL PROJECTS PDF
Google Earth Interactive Project Map
1) In order to view the text and pictures, Google Earth Version 4.0 or later is needed. It can be dowloaded by clicking this link: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html
**Note: After downloading the Google Earth executable file (defaults to your desktop) you will need to run it in order to finish installation.
2) Download and open the KMZ file: Fly to NCSU Water Quality Sites
3) Once Google Earth opens, expand and select "NCSU Water Quality Group" folder under "My Places", located in the control panel on the left. Then click the "play" button (on the control panel) to let Google Earth fly between projects. To see pictures and descriptive text on each site, double click the project name or click on the icon.
