What This Tutorial Covers

This tutorial serves as a hands-on guide for professionals using GeoSWMM, with a focus on the practical application of water quality treatment modeling in Best Management Practices (BMPs) for urban stormwater control. It is intended for users who already have a working knowledge of hydrology, hydraulics, stormwater management modeling, model input data in ArcGIS Pro and the use of EPA SWMM elements, along with a basic understanding of how land use conditions influence runoff quality in urban catchments.

The tutorial walks users through the process of modeling total suspended solids (TSS) treatment in the BMPs previously introduced to manage runoff from a new residential development. It emphasizes key tasks such as applying water quality treatment functions to the detention pond, filter strips, and infiltration trenches used in earlier tutorials, and modifying the detention pond design to reflect runoff reduction from upstream infiltration measures. These skills are especially relevant for engineers and planners seeking to evaluate both runoff control and pollutant removal performance within integrated stormwater management systems.

Users will learn how to represent TSS treatment in different BMPs using appropriate modeling approaches in GeoSWMM. In this tutorial, TSS removal in the detention pond is modeled as an exponential function of time and water depth, while TSS removal in the filter strips and infiltration trenches is represented as a fixed percentage reduction in pollutant loading. This tutorial complements the GeoSWMM User’s Manual by offering a structured, example-driven walkthrough of real-world modeling scenarios.

The following section begins a step-by-step demonstration of the worked example project, guiding users through each stage of setting up and evaluating TSS treatment in BMPs using GeoSWMM.