Emory University: Case Study

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Pages: 8

1.1 Background

Emory University is a private research university located in Druid Hills in the western edge of DeKalb County, located seven miles from downtown Atlanta. As one of the most preeminent research institutions in the United States, Emory University is internationally renowned for its liberal arts, law and medicine programs: Emory Healthcare, one of the largest private employers in Atlanta, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) both have their headquarters within the University’s 735-acre sprawling urban campus area, making the campus a national destination for cancer research and disease prevention.

The University campus, originally designed and built in 1915, has undergone a sustained pattern of growth as the university has evolved from a rural site with a half dozen-buildings, to a sprawling campus with nearly 15,000 enrolled students and seven million square feet of existing building space, with future plans that call for an increase to 11.7 million total square feet [1]. Because of this and of the rapid urbanization of the neighboring land, the percentage of tree and vegetation cover has steadily declined as the percentage of Total Impervious Area (TIA): rooftops, parking decks, sidewalks, and roads, has steadily increased encompass 46% of the total campus area, a number set to increase in
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Runoff Reduction (RRV): “Runoff reduction practices shall be sized and designed to retain the first 1.0 inch of rainfall on the site to the maximum extent practicable. Runoff reduction practices are stormwater BMPs used to disconnect impervious and disturbed pervious surfaces from the storm drain system, thereby reducing post-development stormwater runoff rates, volumes, and pollutant loads. Since runoff reduction practices actually eliminate stormwater runoff (and the pollutants associated with it), rather than simply treating or detaining runoff, they can contribute to several of the other performance standards, while providing many/additional