Developing the Sediment and Erosion Control Laboratory to Become a Hands-on Training and Education Center
Ming-Han Li, Pengzhi Li, Jett McFalls, Beverly Storey and Galen Newman, November 2013
The Sedimentation and Erosion Control (SEC) Laboratory has an established reputation as a renowned soil erosion research facility in the United States since its inception in 1990. During the past two decades, the lab has expanded its original performance evaluation task to cutting-edge stormwater research, as well as professional training development. The researchers affiliated with the SEC Lab have also developed numerous training courses.
In the market of continuing education industry, a popular business is to provide courses on soil erosion and Low Impact Development (LID) subjects. As the growing demand on these topics, there are more and more continuing education programs starting to set up training courses on this topic. However, those programs rarely can provide hands-on training. Therefore, the opportunity arises where Texas A&M Transportation Institute can depend on the SEC Lab for hands-on exercises to be integrated in professional training, continuing education and high-impact learning experiences for current TAMU students, regional municipalities, and other professionals in the design and construction industries.
Considering SEC Lab has never developed a master plan and the demand of continuing education, the research proposed a master plan for the lab and developed a pilot LID course. Tasked conducted include: cases review, SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and challenge) analysis, course module development, conceptual plan design, model build, propagation, and final master plan.
Keywords: Low Impact Development, Soil Erosion, Stormwater Management, Continuing Education
ENTIRE REPORT (Adobe Acrobat File – 24 MB)