Landscape Architecture Commons^™

Water Wise Landscape Practices: A Case Study For The City Of Gering, Christina E. Land

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

This professional project is founded on my education, experiences, and networks. I have had the opportunity to use what I have learned thus far and be challenged to look at public planning from a different perspective. In partnership with the City of Gering I was able to get knee deep in the facility planning of the city owned property which is home to the Community Ever Green House. The project reviews how the property is integrated into the community and the impact it has. Then, identifies opportunities to improve overall functionality with a closer look at addressing hazard mitigation using …

A Case For Educational Communication On Sustainable Stormwater Management Sites Using Interpretive Methods: Applications For Utah State University, Lilian Taft

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Humans are increasingly urbanizing landscapes, lowering the land’s ability to infiltrate stormwater, increasing surface water runoff. This, combined with decreasing water availability in the Intermountain West, produces the issue of sustainable stormwater management. Professionals are moving toward green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), but public is often not aware of stormwater’s impacts on natural environments or what the purpose of GSI is. Stormwater management design techniques are evolving to use visible, sustainable methods celebrating stormwater, rather than treating the valuable resource as a disposable nuisance, channeling it underground and out of sight. Artful Rainwater Design (ARD), a technique coined by Stuart Echols …

Knitting Together Communities - Designing The Heart Of Six Corners And Old Hill, Samantha Bowman, Ankur Choudhary, Alexandria Connell, Megan Davey, Katina Decoulos, Richard Duhamel, Brooklyn Feng, Ian Finn, Doreen Guan, Sophia Liquori, Connor Moloney, Claudia Namaroff, Emily Noonan, Hunter Proulx, Stephen Rezendes, Maura Robitaille, Vincent Shu, Jaques Skriletz, Frank Sleegers

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Knitting together Communities -Designing the Heart of Six Corners and Old Hill

Knitting Together Communities – Designing the Heart of Six Corners and Old Hill provides a framework to knit together assets and opportunities for creating a strong identity and sense of coherence for a transformative urban district in Springfield, MA. The Senior Urban Design Studio 2019 created six proposals that were searching for design opportunities that enhance the aesthetic quality of the neighborhood and increase services for the wellbeing of the residents. The two neighborhoods are characterized by strong neighborhood leadership through committed residents, community centers and active religious …

From Garden City To Sponge City: Urban Green Infrastructure Policy Development, Hongmei Lu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With rapid urbanization, environmental problems like green space shortage and urban flooding become prevalent. Identifying effective policymaking and implementation is critical in order to solve these problems. This dissertation addresses four theoretical topics in the context of urban green infrastructure: policy entrepreneur, institutional response to club goods, quasi-public-private partnership, and policy goal ambiguity. Each is exemplified by a causal case study. Data were collected through participant observation, field trips, semi-structured interviews, and crowdsourcing.

Chapter 1 takes a longitudinal perspective and examines the dual role of policy entrepreneur and policy implementer in reaching the final policy goal of mandating vertical greening …

Green Infrastructure For Framingham, Massachusetts: Greenway Planning And Cultural Landscape Design, Aqsa Butt, Justin Cooper, Matthew Crosby, Elyse Couture, Valerie Degroote, Andrew Duncan, Caroline Fay, Adam Fearing, Russell Greene, Mark Gullifer, Bladimir Hernandez, Daniel Keirstead, Christopher Johnson, John Milos, Jing Pan, Benjamin Perrett, Rebecca Jean Walton

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

The senior undergraduate, Bachelors of Landscape Architecture studio at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst developed a town-wide greenway plan for the Town of Framingham’s Department of Community and Economic Development. This conceptual plan connects the town’s natural, cultural, and recreational resources through a network of pedestrian and bike trails. This plan also seeks to connect the diverse neighborhoods within the Town to these resources and provide alternative means of local residents to access jobs, schools, and retail centers. The greenway plan builds on Framingham’s Open Space and Recreation Plan (2013), which identified the need for a regional greenway system to …

Darndale Park Report, Ciaran Cuffe, Daniel Blanchfield, Andrea Culjak, Meadhbh Ní Lochlainn, Orla Gilleece, Lin Zhao, Niall Thomas, John Lucey, Zainab Mansary

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Greening Worcester: Planning And Designing Green Infrastructure Networks For Habitat, Recreation, And Landscape Interpretation:, Meilan Chen, Zhuoya Deng, Ericka Duym, Matthew R. Hisle, Laura Keskula, Joseph Larico, Bin Liu, Shu Liu, Wenjie Liu, Tharyn S. Nein-Large, Junbo Zhang

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This graduate studio focused on the creating green infrastructure networks in Worcester, Massachusetts which is the second most populated city in Massachusetts. The studio worked in conjunction with the EcoTarium, an innovative science museum in Worcester in order to link the City’s rich cultural, historic, and academic resources across a densely populated urban region; and expand opportunities for local residents to learn about urban ecology in their own neighborhoods. The studio project builds on the City’s open space plan goals by planning improved access to water resources, increased connectivity between existing parks and open space, and safer bicycle and pedestrian …

Syllabus: Sustainable Green Infrastructure Planning And Design, Robert L. Ryan

Sustainability Education Resources

Green infrastructure planning requires a systems approach to improving ecological function while providing vital ecosystem services for human populations. This course will introduce students to the concepts, theories, and applications of greenway and green infrastructure planning at multiple scales, including the site-level, neighborhood, and regional scales. A particular area of focus will be the relationship of green infrastructure for improving hydrology and riparian corridors as part of comprehensive green space planning for recreation and cultural resources. The course will look at a wide range of systems including water, transportation, and food systems. A case study approach will be used to …

Form-Based Variables For Stormwater Quality Performance: Comparing Three Bmp Types In Five U.S. States, Bo Yang, Amanda A. Goodwin, Ryan R. Dupont, Malgorzata Rycewicz-Borecki

Bo Yang

The efficacy of the best management practice (BMP) systems for stormwater treatment has been extensively discussed in respect to water quality. However, little research has been conducted on how form-based variables (e.g., shape, length) can affect the performance of BMP systems. This study presents empirical findings from three common BMP types—detention, retention, and wetland channel—in urban settings of five U.S. states. Total suspended solids (TSS), the number one pollutant carrier in stormwater, is selected for comparison. Multiple years of water quality data are collected from on-site grab samples and from the International Stormwater Database. Geographic Information System (GIS) is used …

Local Levers For Change: Mainstreaming Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Into Municipal Planning To Foster Sustainability Transitions, Christine Wamsler, Christopher Luederitz, Ebba Brink

Christine Wamsler

Unprecedented global challenges demand wide-reaching societal modification to ensure life support functions and human well-being. In the absence of adequate international responses to climate change and the need for place-based adaptation, local governments have a pivotal role in fostering sustainability transitions. In this context, the importance of ecosystem-based adaptation is increasingly recognized as a multi-benefit approach that utilizes ecosystem services to harmonize human-environment systems. Although research advocates the mainstreaming of ecosystem-based adaptation to advance sustainable planning, the pathways for its systematic implementation are missing and it remains unclear how local authorities can best integrate this new approach into their core …

The Cost Of Green Infrastructure: Worth The Investment?, Martha Sheils

Green Infrastructure

Is GI worth the investment?

• LID techniques often lead to cost savings when we look at WHOLE PROJECT COSTS

• Natural Infrastructure investments for flood control, drinking water protection and wildlife habitat can yield SIGNIFICANT AVOIDED COSTS and additional co-benefits to communitites

Ipswich River Watershed - Planning And Designing Green Infrastructure Networks, Samantha R. Anderson, Alyssandra Black, Ngoc Xuan Doan, Trudy M. Hall, Keith W. Hannon, Irene Estelle Miller, Colin N. O'Donnell, Amanda Lynn Rookey, Yan Xu

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This project focuses on the Ipswich River Watershed in the suburbanizing North Shore region of metropolitan Boston. The Ipswich River is one of the most threatened rivers in the United States due to increased development and drinking water withdrawals from neighboring towns that impact the water quality and quantity. In order to address these environmental issues, this studio developed a green infrastructure plan for the watershed that proposes protecting open space within water resource areas, preserving wildlife habitat areas, and creating recreational linkages. Each student in the course developed a focus area at the local scale to illustrate implementing green …

Green Infrastructure Design For Stormwater Runoff And Water Quality: Empirical Evidence From Large Watershed-Scale Community Developments, Bo Yang, Shujuan Li

Bo Yang

Green infrastructure (GI) design is advocated as a new paradigm for stormwater management, whereas current knowledge of GI design is mostly based on isolated design strategies used at small-scale sites. This study presents empirical findings from two watershed-scale community projects (89.4 km2 and 55.7 km2) in suburban Houston, Texas. The GI development integrates a suite of on-site, infiltration-based stormwater management designs, and an adjacent community development follows conventional drainage design. Parcel data were used to estimate the site impervious cover area. Observed streamflow and water quality data (i.e., NO3-N, NH3-N, and TP) were correlated with the site imperviousness. Results show …

Design-With-Nature For Multifunctional Landscapes: Environmental Benefits And Social Barriers In Community Development, Bo Yang, Ming-Han Li, Shujuan Li

Bo Yang

Since the early 1970s, Ian McHarg’s design-with-nature concept has been inspiring landscape architects, community and regional planners, and liked-minded professionals to create designs that take advantage of ecosystem services and promote environmental and public health. This study bridges the gap in the literature that has resulted from a lack of empirical examinations on the multiple performance benefits derived through design-with-nature and the under-investigated social aspect emanated from McHarg’s Ecological Determinism design approach. The Woodlands, TX, USA, an ecologically designed community development under McHarg’s approach, is compared with two adjacent communities that follow the conventional design approach. Using national environmental databases …

Community Planning Approach And Residents’ Perceived Safety: A Landscape Analysis Of Park Design In The Woodlands, Texas, Bo Yang, Shujuan Li, Bret R. Elder, Zhe Wang

Bo Yang

This study compares community-park design and residents’ perceptions of safety in two subdivision communities in The Woodlands, Texas. The communities were built following two different planning approaches — the ecological approach and the conventional approach. Surveys have shown that residents generally feel safer in community parks built according to the latter approach. Using landscape metrics and home-to-park proximity indicators, we examine how different planning approaches affect park design and, as a result, influence residents’ perceptions of safety. We cross-validated the results with survey studies conducted over several years. The study findings suggest that park location, spatial configuration of woody vegetation, …

Green Infrastructure Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Green infrastructure is an approach for managing stormwater that uses vegetation and soils to capture and treat rainwater where it falls. Unlike single-purpose gray infrastructure, green infrastructure realizes multiple benefits at once, including flood mitigation, improved water and air quality, community beautification, provision of recreational opportunities, and energy and cost savings. This resource directory is intended to help communities design, implement, fund, and monitor green infrastructure practices and programs. It was compiled by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. …

Assessing Impermeable Surface Area Impacts On Modeling: Implications For The Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan In Omaha, Nebraska, Andrew D. Szatko

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

The report looks at assessing the accuracy of estimating impervious surface areas (ISAs) by zoning code, the method utilized by the City of Omaha, Nebraska. A 101 acre subcatchment had all ISAs manually digitized and compared the actual with the estimated value. The subcatchment was then modeled with 10 percent decreases of ISAs to establish the relationship with peak flow rates and total volume in the combined sewer service area. The results show a significant relationship between the two that may provide insights into a new approach to manage CSO events with the integration of green infrastructure.

Selected Lid Projects In New England, New England Environmental Finance Center

Planning

Examples of low impact development (LID) projects in each state in New England.