The U.S. EPA’s Office of Water is announcing the Campus RainWorks Challenge for undergraduate and graduate students. We are invited to create an innovative green infrastructure design for our local campus building, Global Village, which recently finished construction in September 2010.
 
This building already has three bio swales to mange stormwater, however it is lacking one on the west side. This project will entitle us to show how managing stormwater at its source can benefit the campus community and the environment on the west side of Global Village. In addition this project has a strong initiative, with a lots of interest by the mechanic of the building and the facutly and staff to actually reuse the water collected. We will hopefully be integrating Green infrastructure; which uses vegetation, soils, and natural processes to manage stormwater and create healthier urban environments. While single-purpose “gray” stormwater infrastructure (e.g. catch basins, pipes, and ponds) is largely designed to move urban stormwater away from the built environment, green infrastructure uses vegetation and soil to manage rainwater where it falls. By weaving natural processes into the built environment, green infrastructure can provide not only stormwater management, but also heat island mitigation, air quality management, community amenities, and much more.
 
(Taken from http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/crw_challenge.cfm)