by Brianna Crandall — September 5, 2016 — On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched its fifth annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, a competition for college and university students to design innovative solutions for the nation’s water infrastructure. Using their campuses as labs, teams develop green infrastructure systems to reduce stormwater pollution and build resilience to climate change. Since 2012, more than 420 student teams have participated in the challenge.
According to Joel Beauvais, deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water:
Stormwater is one of the nation’s most significant water challenges, with increasing amounts of runoff polluting our nation’s streams, rivers and lakes. Through the Campus RainWorks Challenge, EPA invites our country’s future planners, designers, and engineers to apply their classroom learning and help us solve stormwater management problems through innovative green infrastructure design and technology.
Teams may register for the 2016 Challenge from September 1 to September 30. The 2016 Challenge winners will be announced in spring 2017. Each first-place team will earn a student prize of $2,000 and a faculty prize of $3,000 to support green infrastructure research or training. Second-place teams will win $1,000 for student teams and $2,000 for faculty research.
Green infrastructure decreases pollution to local waterways by treating stormwater where it falls and keeping more polluted runoff out of sewer systems. Green infrastructure features include green roofs, permeable materials, green streets, rain gardens and rain harvesting systems. Communities are increasingly using green infrastructure to supplement their “gray” infrastructure such as pipes, filters and ponds.
Green infrastructure can create vibrant communities by increasing economic activity, neighborhood revitalization, job creation and open space, notes the EPA. It also strengthens a community’s resiliency to the impacts of climate change by reducing the burden on local water infrastructure, managing local flooding, reducing urban heat islands and lowering energy demands.
More information is available on the EPA Campus RainWorks Challenge Web page.
