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Stormwater Design Workshop: Planning for the Next 100 Years of Stormwater Management

December 15 @ 8:00 am - December 16 @ 12:00 pm

Dates: December 15-16, 2026
Time: 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM (Central Time) each day
Format: Live webinar (Microsoft Teams)
PDHs: 7.5 Professional Development Hours, 3.75 per day (includes 2 hours of ethics content, 1 per day)

Presenters

Aaron Gwinnup, PE – RDG Planning & Design (Dec 15)

Greg Pierce, PE, CPESC – RDG Planning & Design (Dec 15)

Andy Sauer, PE, ENV SP – Burns & McDonnell (Dec 16)

Lauren Moore, PE – Burns & McDonnell (Dec 16)

Scott Jeffers, PE, PhD – Anthro (Dec 16)

Workshop Overview

Our annual design workshop takes a long view this year. Day 1 covers how communities plan for stormwater and carry that plan through development. Day 2 goes deeper into resilient systems design and walks through a completed project in Kansas City. Each day ends with an ethics session. Come for one day or both.

Day 1, Tuesday, Dec 15: Planning at the Community Scale

A back-to-basics morning on the big picture: what goes into a community stormwater plan, how it ties to budgets, and how to hold onto it through development review. A good fit for planners, city engineers, public works staff, and anyone newer to stormwater who wants a refresher.

8:00 | Welcome | Loulou Dickey, ISWEP

8:10 | Building a community-scale stormwater plan | Aaron Gwinnup / Greg Pierce

  • Moving from reactive to proactive planning
  • What goes into a community stormwater plan
  • Connecting the plan to capital improvement programs and budgets
  • How master plans and watershed plans fit together

9:30 | Break

9:45 | From plan to plat: carrying the plan through development | Aaron Gwinnup / Greg Pierce

  • Applying big-picture principles in land use planning and development review
  • Protecting major flow paths and reserving space for stormwater
  • Planning for future buildout
  • Making sure what gets built matches what was designed

10:45 | Ethics: Professional responsibility in development design | Aaron Gwinnup

  • Who the engineer serves: clients, the public and future residents
  • Designing to minimum standards vs. planning for the long term
  • Responsibility after construction
  • Case studies will be presented and discussed

11:45 | Discussion and wrap-up

Day 2, Wednesday, Dec 16: Systems Design and Resilient Stormwater

Why managing runoff volume matters as much as peak flows, and how those ideas played out on the Westport project in Kansas City. Geared toward engineers and designers who want to see the principles worked out on a real project.

8:00 | Welcome | Loulou Dickey, ISWEP

8:10 | Systems design: looking beyond peak flow rates | Andy Sauer

  • Limits of peak-flow-based design standards
  • Managing runoff volume
  • Modeling approaches and what the data shows
  • Big-picture lessons from the Kansas City region

9:30 | Break

9:35 | Case study: Westport Stormwater Improvements, Kansas City | Andy Sauer and Lauren Moore

  • Project background and goals
  • Design approach and project delivery
  • Working with the community
  • Lessons for Iowa communities

10:45 | Break

10:50 | Ethics: Responsible Flow: Ethical AI in Stormwater Engineering | Scott Jeffers

  • Where AI helps: interpreting regulations, building flood and runoff models, and drafting public outreach
  • Keeping a human in the loop: AI supports engineering judgment, it doesn’t replace it
  • Checking AI-assisted models and results against local safety standards
  • Stormwater as a public-serving profession: protecting lives, property, clean water and public trust

11:50 | Discussion and wrap-up

Target Audience

Engineers who plan and design stormwater systems, and the city and county staff who review them. Day 1 also works well for planners and anyone newer to stormwater.

Learning Outcomes

After this workshop, you’ll be able to:

  • Describe the key pieces of a community stormwater plan and how it connects to capital budgets
  • Explain how stormwater master plans and watershed plans fit together
  • Apply big-picture planning principles to land use and development review
  • Explain the limits of designing to peak flow rates alone, and how managing runoff volume supports more resilient systems
  • Apply systems thinking using a completed urban stormwater project as an example
  • Recognize an engineer’s responsibilities to the public, including when using AI tools

Registration: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/ggqffg9. Register for one day or both. Pricing and member rates are on the registration page.

Details

Organizer