Development of a workstation environment for the assessment of a stormwater drainage fee

Abstract

The design and development of a workstation for the assessment of a stormwater drainage fee based on built-up surfaces is described. The work was performed under contract to the City and County of Denver, Colorado, USA.

The requirement for such a system was prompted by the City's decision to institute a fee for the expansion and maintenance of the City's stormwater drainage system. This fee should be based on the total amount of impervious surfaces (i.e. buildings, driveways, sidewalks) on the different properties. To determine the impervious areas on a parcel by parcel basis a method was selected that employs aerial photography in combination with existing property boundaries available on hand drawn assessor maps.

Project requirements, setup and organization, and the implementation of the user requirements are briefly described. Subsequently, the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen approach are reviewed followed by a discussion of the experiences gained after more than three years of operation at the user's site.