Automating BMP Tracking and Compliance With Forerunner

Effective stormwater management programs are essential to protecting water quality, reducing flood risk, and maintaining compliance with MS4 permit requirements. Yet many communities still rely on fragmented spreadsheets, disconnected GIS layers, and manual inspection processes to manage their stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs).

These disconnected systems make it difficult to maintain accurate inventories, conduct consistent inspections, and compile documentation for regulatory reporting.

Forerunner’s Stormwater Management solution addresses these challenges by providing a centralized, geospatial platform for managing BMP inventories, inspections, outreach activities, and compliance documentation while aligning with existing municipal workflows.

Establishing A Centralized BMP Inventory

An accurate BMP inventory is the foundation of an effective stormwater program. Without a reliable, up-to-date record of assets, long-term maintenance and compliance become significantly more difficult.

Forerunner enables municipalities to catalog structural and non-structural BMPs, including detention basins, bio-retention systems, infiltration practices, and other stormwater controls, within a single map-based platform.

Using configurable asset tables and parcel-linked records, staff can easily track asset location, ownership, inspection history, and maintenance needs over time. This centralized system becomes a shared source of truth across departments, allowing stormwater, engineering, planning, and public works teams to access the same up-to-date information when making decisions.

Streamlined Inspections and Field Documentation

Routine BMP inspections are essential to maintaining infrastructure performance and meeting MS4 permit requirements. However, when inspection records are captured on paper or stored across disconnected systems, documentation becomes difficult to manage and compliance reporting becomes more time-consuming.

Forerunner simplifies inspection workflows by allowing field teams to capture information directly within the platform using mobile devices. Inspection forms can be configured to match each municipality’s permit requirements, enabling teams to record observations, upload photos, and document maintenance needs while on site. Field data automatically syncs with office dashboards - reducing duplicative data entry and strengthening documentation integrity.

Some key BMP inspection capabilities include:

• Ensuring Inspection Compliance With Minimal Control Measures (MCMs) Requirements: Inspection forms within Forerunner can be configured to align with each municipality’s MS4 permit requirements and Minimum Control Measures (MCMs). Field teams can capture site observations, upload photos, and document maintenance needs directly within the platform, creating a comprehensive, compliance-ready inspection record over time.

• Monitoring BMP Conditions With Proactive Alerts: BMP conditions can change over time due to sediment buildup, structural deterioration, or performance issues. Forerunner’s notification and alert capabilities allow staff to flag inspection observations and track maintenance needs in real time. Alerts help teams prioritize work orders and address potential issues before they escalate into larger compliance risks.
  

• Accurate Field Mapping with Location-Based Logging: Field staff can create new asset records directly from the mobile app when they encounter undocumented infrastructure. Using Forerunner’s  object creation tool, users can place a point, line, or polygon on the map, classify the asset, and attach inspection records immediately. This is especially valuable when infrastructure is newly installed, privately maintained, or previously undocumented. Once mapped, BMPs can also be classified as public or private assets within the system, clarifying inspection responsibility and supporting enforcement prioritization.

• Supporting Third Party BMP Inspections: Privately maintained BMPs often create administrative complexity for MS4 communities. Tracking inspection documentation from HOAs, contractors, and engineers can be time-consuming when managed outside a unified system. Forerunner addresses this through configurable intake forms and role-based permissions that allow third parties to submit inspection reports directly through mobile or web applications. Submitted inspections are automatically tied to the correct asset record, ensuring documentation remains complete, standardized, and readily available for compliance reporting.

Improving Public Communication and Outreach Tracking

MS4 programs extend beyond physical infrastructure. Communities must also track administrative BMPs such as public education campaigns and outreach initiatives.

Forerunner allows municipalities to document outreach activities alongside infrastructure management within the same platform. Staff can log communications, education campaigns, and engagement efforts directly on parcel or program records, ensuring these activities are captured for compliance documentation.

The platform also includes built-in public communication tools that allow municipalities to share updates and program information through a branded public website. Residents can submit maintenance requests or questions through public forms that feed directly into internal workflows.

This approach improves transparency while ensuring outreach activities remain connected to the broader stormwater management program.

Simplifying MS4 Reporting and Compliance Documentation

Preparing MS4 annual reports can be one of the most time-consuming parts of stormwater management, especially when data must be compiled from multiple systems.

Forerunner consolidates inspection records, maintenance logs, and outreach documentation into structured reporting workflows aligned with Minimum Control Measures (MCMs). Since the data is captured directly within Forerunner, staff can generate summaries and export documentation without manually reconciling spreadsheets or field notes.

These reporting tools also support external audits and internal program reviews, helping municipalities maintain accurate and defensible compliance records.

Enhancing Existing Municipal Systems

Modernizing stormwater programs does not require abandoning established technology. Forerunner is designed to complement existing municipal systems, integrating with GIS platforms, permitting software, and document repositories. This allows communities to enhance BMP tracking, inspections, and reporting without disrupting current workflows.

By centralizing stormwater data, streamlining field inspections, supporting public outreach, and simplifying compliance reporting, Forerunner helps MS4 communities manage BMP programs more efficiently while maintaining alignment with existing tools and processes.