ABSTRACT To assist local governments in their efforts to develop more effective stormwater management programs, an innovative comprehensive approach to stormwater management referred to as Low-Impact Development (LID) has been developed. Low-Impact Development technology employs microscale and distributed management techniques. This paper briefly outlines the development of LID technology and discusses its basic hydrological control principles. However, LID's source control techniques are an economical common sense approach that can be used to better manage new development or retrofit existing development. We believe that this new approach is a significant step forward towards advancing the state-of-the-art of stormwater management and will be a valuable and useful tool for local governments in their efforts to control urban runoff
