CALL FOR PAPERS
Denver, Colorado
August 19-23, 2012

THE STORMCON 2012 CALL FOR PAPERS IS NOW CLOSED

StormCon is the only North American event dedicated exclusively to stormwater and surface-water professionals across the continent: municipal stormwater and public works managers, industrial stormwater managers, engineering consultants, regulatory personnel, watershed management professionals, and others concerned with stormwater and surface-water quality.

Forester Media Inc., publisher of Stormwater magazine, is seeking papers for presentation at StormCon 2012, which will take place at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Denver, Colorado, August 19 – 23, 2012. The 2012 conference will feature five program tracks (described below).

Presentations for StormCon 2012 will be 30 minutes each, including a question-and-answer period.

Please carefully read the information below before submitting your abstract. You may submit your abstract by clicking here. The deadline for submitting abstracts is Tuesday, December 6, 2011.

Conference Tracks

BMP Case Studies

This track presents examples of how structural and nonstructural best management practices (BMPs) are being used—with case studies and performance data—including combinations of BMPs to achieve water-quality goals.

Presentations must not promote or endorse any proprietary BMP, technology, or company, nor should they simply describe the features of a product; however, examples of BMP installations with data on the effectiveness of a particular system will be considered. Topics in this track include:

Filtration systems
Retention and detention systems
Advanced applications and treatment trains
Erosion and sediment control practices
Post-construction stormwater management
Urban retrofitting
Inspection, maintenance, and repair of BMPs

Green Infrastructure

This track includes low-impact development (LID) techniques as well as smart growth and other green infrastructure practices. LID strives to maintain or mimic the predevelopment hydrology of a site by infiltrating, storing, filtering, and evaporating stormwater runoff rather than moving it offsite to a centralized stormwater system. Green infrastructure has been described by EPA as a comprehensive approach to water-quality protection using natural and built systems at the regional, community, and site scales. Smart growth focuses on neighborhood and urban planning, with important implications for stormwater management. Areas of focus for this track include:

Infiltration and bioretention practices
Rain gardens
Green roofs
Porous pavement
Community-wide and watershed-scaled water-quality approaches
Green infrastructure for infill development and redevelopment
Smart growth practices
Light imprint approach to neighborhood design
Rainwater harvesting and stormwater reuse
LEED stormwater credits

Stormwater Program Management

This track covers many aspects of managing a successful municipal or industrial stormwater program: funding, public education and outreach, staffing, regulatory compliance, and other program elements. Focus areas include:

Strategies for meeting NPDES permit requirements
Watershed-based stormwater management
Building public education and outreach programs
Funding options for stormwater programs
Construction-site compliance and inspection issues
Hiring and working with consultants
Illicit discharge detection and elimination programs
Municipal good housekeeping practices
Integrating the stormwater program with TMDL development
Industrial stormwater management practices

Water-Quality Monitoring

This track focuses on water-quality assessment, monitoring and sampling techniques, and modeling practices:

Watershed assessments
Determining pollutant loadings
Effective water-quality modeling
Sampling tools and techniques
Inventorying stormwater facilities
Bacterial detection and identification techniques

Advanced Research Topics

This technical track includes academic research; methods for testing the effectiveness of best management practices and comparing different BMPs; and topics and trends in stormwater research, such as standardizing testing protocols and standards for measuring the effectiveness of BMPs. Topics in this track include:

Performance standards and testing protocols
Evaluating BMP performance
Treating highway runoff
Characterizing pollutant loads
Fate and transport of pollutants

Please note that we are not looking for descriptions of technologies or BMPs and how they work without supporting performance data. If your presentation deals with one or more BMPs, especially with proprietary systems, your abstract must indicate what supporting data the presentation will include.

Who Should Submit an Abstract?

• Municipal and industrial stormwater managers—Describe your stormwater program, funding mechanisms, public outreach programs, or NPDES permit process. Share your experiences working with regulators, BMP product vendors, and outside consultants.
• Engineering consultants and design professionals—Share new approaches to stormwater problems, present case studies of interesting projects, or discuss the latest design tools.
• Researchers—Present data on BMP performance, new technologies, or modeling and assessment tools.
Regulatory personnel—Discuss developments in stormwater permitting, TMDL development, and state and local regulations.

Please note that abstracts promoting proprietary products or companies will not be accepted as part of the StormCon conference program.

General Content Guidelines

The abstract you submit is the basis for your presentation description in the conference program. For this reason, if your abstract is accepted, your presentation and paper must match the title and description in your abstract.

Incomplete projects or presentations without conclusions are not desired. Your peers expect you to present data, evaluation, and analyses or conclusions drawn from research or actual projects that are actionable.

Because papers to be presented are selected on the basis of your abstract, keep in mind these selection criteria when writing the abstract. Will your paper:

Have broad interest for people in the field of stormwater management and surface-water quality?
Convey new knowledge or experience about an aspect of stormwater management?
Demonstrate the use of a tool or methodology?
Present data on the performance or use of a best management practice or technique?
Draw clear conclusions or evaluations that are actionable for the audience?

StormCon attendees are professionals working in different areas of the stormwater industry: for municipal or state-level programs, for engineering consulting firms, for regulatory agencies, for commercial developers and contractors, and in academia. Your audience has an understanding of basic stormwater principles and terminology, so you don’t need to include a great deal of background information in your abstract or in the presentation and paper. For example, don’t include information on the history of the Clean Water Act or an extensive description of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, as your audience will be familiar with these.

Length of Presentations

All presentations are 30 minutes long, including a question and answer period. Speakers have the option of speaking for the 30-minute allotted time, or giving a shorter presentation to allow more time for questions at the end.

Presentations may be reclassified in a different track as appropriate.

Deadline for Submission

The deadline for receiving abstracts is Tuesday, December 6, 2011. Abstracts shall be one (1) page in length (300 words or less).

All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings online. If your abstract is selected, you will receive guidelines for preparing and submitting your paper when you are notified of acceptance. Final papers will be due to Forester Media by Tuesday, May 15, 2012. Only papers that are presented at StormCon 2012 will be included in the conference proceedings.

Please note that StormCon does not cover presenters’ travel expenses or accommodations. However, a discounted registration fee is available for all presenters.

The deadline for submitting abstracts was Tuesday, December 6, 2011.