Best management practice for water pollution

Best management practices (BMPs) is a term used in the United States and Canada to describe a type of water pollution control.

Stormwater management, as a specialized area within the field of environmental engineering, emerged later in the 20th century, and some practitioners have used the term BMP to describe both structural or engineered control devices and systems (e.g. retention ponds) to treat polluted stormwater, as well as operational or procedural practices (e.g. minimizing use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides).

Generally BMPs focus on water quality problems caused by increased impervious surfaces from land development.

[11] BMPs are designed to reduce stormwater volume, peak flows, and/or nonpoint source pollution through evapotranspiration, infiltration, detention, and filtration or biological and chemical actions.

[17][18][19] Stormwater BMPs can be classified as "structural" (i.e., devices installed or constructed on a site such as silt fences, rock filter dams, fiber rolls (also called erosion control logs or excelsior wattles), sediment traps and numerous other proprietary products) or "non-structural" (procedures, such as modified landscaping practices, soil disturbing activity scheduling, or street sweeping).