MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Low Impact Development (LID) is an innovative stormwater management approach with a basic principle that is modeled after nature: manage rainfall at the source using uniformly distributed controls. The goal of LID is to mimic a site’s pre-development hydrology by using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate, and detain runoff close to its source.

LID benefits so many things, including reducing infrastructure costs for ponds, curbs and gutters, inlets, and pipes, reducing life-cycle costs, and increasing marketability and property values.

LID is simple and effective. Instead of large investments in complex and costly centralized conveyance and treatment infrastructure, LID allows for the integration of treatment and management measures into urban site features.
LID is economical. It costs less than conventional stormwater management systems to construct and maintain, in part, because of fewer pipes, fewer below-ground infrastructure requirements, and less imperviousness.

LID is flexible. It offers a wide variety of structural and nonstructural techniques to provide for both runoff quality and quantity benefits. LID works in highly urbanized constrained areas as well as open regions and environmentally sensitive sites.
LID is a balanced approach. LID is an advanced, ecologically-based land development technology that seeks to better integrate the built environment with the natural environment.