Model Behavior: A Framework for Regional, Inter-jurisdictional, and Multi-level Stormwater Planning

Water knows no boundaries. Following the path of least resistance, it flows downhill, often crossing many arbitrary lines: municipal borders, infrastructure rights, planning areas, and modeling extents. While water may not respect these border lines, they nevertheless inform our decisions as water resource managers, elected officials, property owners and citizens—so they matter a great deal.

The Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), working in concert with CH2M, a global engineering leader with experience in the Chicago region, created this Regional Planning Framework because we believe that the ability to plan and implement stormwater solutions across boundaries is a vital component of the next wave of innovation in solving flooding and other stormwater-related challenges.