Low Impact Development (LID) is a site design approach that minimizes negative impacts on the hydrologic cycle often associated with conventional land development. LID techniques aim to detain the water onsite, reducing both the quantity and velocity of stormwater running off the site. Impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt change both the hydrology and temperature of the environment. They also contribute to water pollution. Precipitation is unable to seep, or permeate, into the ground where it falls, and instead drains off impervious surfaces. This results in unnaturally large quantities of water flowing more rapidly into the streams of the local watersheds than it would otherwise, creating erosion and bringing with it contaminants acquired from the rooftops and pavement. This pollution then impairs the water quality in the watershed. The most obvious solution to this problem would be to minimize or eliminate impervious surfaces, and instead increase and preserve pervious surfaces. Using porous materials to create parking lots, roadways and sidewalks, therefore, would contribute significantly to improving regional water quality. Using bioretention to reduce the amount of stormwater draining off a site as well as the speed at which it does so is another effective measure applicable to urban retrofits as well as new construction.

Bioretention is one of the main components of LID, although there are many. LID aims to manage stormwater runoff in such a way that recreates and enhances the natural hydrology of the site rather than interfere or destroy it. Bioretention was developed by the Department of Environmental Resources of Prince George's County around 1990 and has become the "Integrated Management Practice" (or IMP) of choice around the world. Bioretention aims to reduce both the quantity and velocity of stormwater runoff by constructing catchment basins in strategic locations along the drainage path. Unlike the tradition stormwater management ponds, bioretention catchment basins are intended to collect, resuse and/or filter stormwater before it enters the stormdrain system, nearby streams or water table. Rain harvesting in cisterns or rain barrels allows 100% roof runoff to be reused in internal appliances or external landscaping. As other bioretention methods use organic matter, such as gravel, mulch, a variety of amended soils and native, non-invasive, water absorbing plants, to process the stormwater naturally, water catchment systems can then drain the runoff or gray water into bioretention facilities that can be part of the landscape. Common bioretention facilities are grass swales, rain gardens, tree filter boxes, and living or "green" roofs. In this way, multiple LID techniques can be combined or integrated to manage a site's stormwater in a manner that enhances rather than deteriorates the regions natural resources.

Instead of replacing the natural environment with the built environment, the City of Bowie strives to intermingle the two so that each can help sustain the other. Green or sod roofs have been used in Europe for hundreds of years. Modern engineering for green roofs have been developed over the last thirty years. These natural roofs are living, vegetative roofing alternatives designed in stark contrast to standard non-porous roofs. Green roofs cover impervious surfaces with permeable plant material providing visually appealing organic architecture that mimics natural processes.

Green roofs yield many environmental benefits, especially when applied to urban settings where nature is at a premium. They can help restore the ecological value of open space to densely developed city centers. Another vital ecological function a green roof can provide is its stormwater management capacity. As impervious cover has become a function of contemporary land uses, cities across the nation have developed over-stressed sewer systems with urgent stormwater management problems. While the “asphalt jungle” grows wildly, acres of open space is diminished, and the inherent natural processes associated with undeveloped areas are also lost.

Vegetated roofs offer one practical ‘at-source’ technique for controlling runoff in areas that already are highly urbanized, catching and, depending on rain intensity and green roof soil depths, can process approximately 80-90% of roof runoff. Plants on green roofs intercept and delay rainfall runoff and the peak flow rate, alleviating combined sewer overflows, and eventually return water to the surrounding atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration. Vegetation absorbs pollutants from rainwater, therefore green roofs provide this same amenity. Heavy metals and nutrients found in stormwater become bound in the soil instead of being discharged into the groundwater or streams or rivers.

Impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt greatly contribute to the ever-growing problem of the urban “heat island” effect. Asphalt in parking lots and on rooftops, in particular, soaks up everything and reradiates it as thermal infrared radiation. The heat is released after sunset and forms a dome of higher temperatures over the cities. Urban “sprawl” has created hot spots in what would otherwise be cool areas of the countryside. The trees in urban areas, such as those preserved in parks, keep cities cool as vegetative canopy biomass greatly lowers air temperatures, whereas the artificial, altered surfaces common in urban landscapes greatly raises them. Green roofs contribute to lower air temperatures, and thus, in quantity, could have a significant impact on reducing the urban heat island effect.