Liminal Habitats: An Investigation of Stormwater Management Facilities in Urban and Suburban Kitchener-Waterloo

Abstract

Stormwater Management Ponds (SWMPs) are a tool to protect neighbourhoods from floods and collect pollutants before they enter the natural environment. Despite these facilities being infrastructure, they inadvertently become habitat for an array of taxa, notably macroinvertebrates. My research has three primary goals: to understand the language used in municipal documents to inform how SWMPs are viewed by the municipal governments in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region; to understand the broader implications of SWMP research; and to investigate the drivers of biodiversity in SWMPs. Firstly, I confirm that SWMPs are predominantly seen as pieces of infrastructure rather than habitat by the municipalities in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. Secondly, I found that SWMPs harbour similar levels of biodiversity compared to control ponds. The majority of the literature focuses on single-taxa investigations, predominantly those of odonates and plant diversity. Thirdly, I investigated biodiversity in SWMPs in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. I investigated the attributes of the ponds and discovered that turbidity and the surrounding land cover impact biodiversity within the ponds. Additionally, I found that facility type impacts biodiversity, where engineered wetlands harboured higher diversity and evenness of macroinvertebrate communities. I compared Kitchener-Waterloo’s SWMPs to other lentic systems across the province, finding that the macroinvertebrate communities in Kitchener-Waterloo’s SWMPs are similar. Based on my research, I recommend implementing engineered wetlands in place of traditional wet ponds in urbanized areas. As well, I recommend municipalities incorporate biodiversity initiatives in their design manuals for SMWP infrastructure. Finally, I advocate for a re-signification of the SWMP and acknowledgement that SWMPs provide habitat in urban areas for macroinvertebrates.