Low impact development

May 2010 — For Yvana Kuhn, a recreational scuba diver and technical advisory committee member for Engineers without Borders, life and work have taken her to coastal environments in Europe, the U.S., Asia and the Middle East. "My passion for travel and the coastal environment shaped my career choice," says the environmental engineer in AECOM's San Diego, California office, who is dedicated to preserving and protecting freshwater and coastal resources for generations to come.

Yvana is committed to low impact development (LID) and water sensitive urban design (WSUD), two closely related approaches that use green infrastructure to naturally manage, polish and conserve stormwater in built environments. She works to spread knowledge of how these approaches benefit natural environments and address human water needs.

On recent stormwater management and erosion control practices for the City and County of Honolulu, Yvana customized a Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) program for the Hawaiian environment. The Erosion Prediction Guidelines that she worked on gave City and County employees reliable documentation on how to implement the program.

Yvana provided technical consultation on projects in China and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). "For the Jinji Lake Project in China, we determined the feasibility of a constructed riverine system and designed a pump system to provide water to the site," she says. "We recommended incorporating LID to treat stormwater runoff." For an amusement park in Dubai, UAE, she provided recommendations and LID design measures to treat runoff on site and conserve existing water.

The 2010 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Young Professional of the Year and a nominee for the New Faces of Engineering 2010 Award, Yvana designs solutions that embrace varying perspectives, protect limited resources, recognize environmental constraints and maximize sustainable opportunities. "I enjoy thinking on my feet and working on challenging projects or issue areas that require creative and implementable solutions," she says.

The future of water resources management revolves around improving sustainable techniques—practices that support a more natural ecosystem balance in developments. "Water resource management is one of our greatest environmental challenges," Yvana says. "The philosophy we must employ is that environmentally sensitive urban development techniques are essential to conserving our water supplies and optimizing reuse while protecting and improving water quality."

Yvana.Kuhn@aecom.com