From the American Society of Landscape Architecture…

ASLA Applauds Bill’s Sustainable Approach to Infrastructure Development.

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announced a campaign to rally support for new Senate legislation designed to encourage green infrastructure - a novel, sustainable approach that uses natural systems of trees, plants and soils to manage rainwater instead of the overburdened and outdated infrastructure that currently exists in cities.

In most instances, rainwater picks up pollutants as it flows from driveways, parking lots, roofs and roadways before pouring untreated through the sewer system into the nearest watershed or drinking water supply. Introduced by U.S. Senator Tom Udall, the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act (S.3561) offers grants and technical assistance for communities to use green roofs, rain gardens and other sustainable approaches that naturally capture and clean the rainwater - often preventing the water from ever entering the sewer system.

Green infrastructure techniques can save cities millions of dollars each year on water management and billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades. In addition, these natural systems actually remove pollutants from the water while helping clean the air, reduce the urban heat-island effect and lower energy consumption. We applaud the leadership of Senator Udall for this legislation, and encourage swift action.

–Nancy Somerville, ASLA Executive Vice President and CEO

The legislation would create between three and five centers around the country to research best green infrastructure practices and provide technical assistance to communities. S.3561 also provides community grants to implement these practices and create a green infrastructure program within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Learn how to Get Involved in ASLA’s Campaign for Green Infrastructure>>

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From the Editors

Stormwater management, once the exclusive purview of engineers, has moved in interesting directions to embrace many other disciplines.   For example, as we were reviewing our array of professional  journals and magazines like StormwaterPA for this Blog, we were impressed by two recent projects highlighted in the June issue of Landscape Architecture magazine.   Two articles document and applaud the efforts of officials in Seattle (”Unpaved Paradise:  A Stream Buried under Mall Parking Is Reborn as a Giant Bio-Swale” by Clair Enlow) and a single city dweller in San Francisco to integrate urban stormwater management into the landscape, as well as add nature back into culture (”From Gray to Green:  A Designer Depaves San Francisco Neighborhoods, Encouraging Stormwater to Sink In and Residents to Enjoy Nature” by Losa Owens Viani).   Both projects stimulated neighborhood revitalization on multiple levels.  And there’s more.  Two other articles in the journal, one on the development of the Gulf Coast in Florida as a model of environmental planning forty years ago (”Back from the Beach” by Daniel Jost), and the other (”A View from Below” by Robert Such) describing how a stream was reintegrated in the heart of Seoul, South Korea as a park, also demonstrate how landscape architects are becoming central to innovative stormwater management.

The articles in this months Landscape Architecture magazine highlight the efforts that landscape architects have played in the preservation of water systems and work within those natural drainage parameters to keep development as green as possible as well as balance cultures needs.  A digital preview of the magazine is available at www.zinio.com.  Go to the magazine tab, then select Home,  then select Gardening.  The American Society of Landscape Architects website is http://www.asla.org.

admin From the Editors environmental planning, green infrastructure, landscape architecure, natural drainage, rainwater harvesting, stormwater runoff, urban redevlopment, urban stormwater

EDITORS NOTE:

This week, we’re sharing an article from the USGS on research focusing on development and stream impacts–namely the adverse effects on aquatic biota. The article has major implications for stormwater management:

More development means more impervious cover means more water impacts means less aquatic life.

Sounds reasonable. These research results have been played out time and again; they have been communicated by well-respected sources such as the Center for Watershed Protection over many years, and argued by stormwater experts such as the Center’s former director, Tom Schueler. And they send an important message.

But, we feel the need to insert an important caveat here – lest these research findings be used to condemn all development and equate any sort of higher density development as inimical to stream life. After all, don’t we continue to maintain in other contexts that the “city” is the ultimate BMP?! The message here must be understood to include an important qualification:

More development using the same conventionally flawed stormwater practices (or none at all) means more impervious cover means more water impacts means less aquatic life.

This is critical. Evaluate the details of the USGS research more closely (metropolitan areas in Boston, Raleigh, Atlanta, Birmingham, Milwaukee-Green Bay, Denver, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Salt Lake City, Portland Oregon). Because the watersheds of the streams being studied include all types of development, much of it older, and because much of this watershed development suffers from no stormwater management whatsoever (in some older cases) or, alternatively, inadequate stormwater management (i.e., simple detention),we need to be very careful about drawing conclusions. What we lack are the results from higher density development using optimal or close to optimal stormwater management systems.

Our BMP manuals make the case for substantial quality and quantity performance for many BMPs. Although few give us 100 percent performance, the argument can be made that with intensive use of both non-structural and structural BMPs, impacts to streams and aquatic life can be dramatically reduced, minimized. Particulate and solubilized nonpoint source pollutant loads can be kept to modest levels. Natural instream hydrology can be nearly mimicked. Pre-development temperature regimes can be almost maintained.

Density is not a dirty word - just the reverse. The “city” is the ultimate BMP. Load as much human-related development into the most compact form (the “city”) as is feasible – using state-of-the-art BMPs (see green infrastructure and all the rest). Retain as much undisturbed area surrounding the “city” in perpetuity. And human life and aquatic life can achieve balance. We must be very careful not to conclude that low density development with impervious cover less than 10 percent, including extremely large-lot residential subdivisions is the ultimate solution to stormwater management/watershed management problems. Such a mindset translates - net -into vastly more land disturbance and vastly more impervious cover and vastly more nonpoint source pollutant loads with vastly more stormwater flow.

For the USGS  discussion, Aquatic Life Declines at Early Stages of Urban Development, go here>>

admin From the Editors aquatic life, BMPs, environmental site design, green infrastructure, impervious cover, LID, Nonpoint source pollution, PA BMP Manual, stormwater runoff, water quality

The number of native fish and aquatic insects, especially those that are pollution sensitive, declines in urban and suburban streams at low levels of development - levels often considered protective for stream communities, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey.

When the area of driveways, parking lots, streets and other impervious cover reaches 10 percent of a watershed area, many types of pollution sensitive aquatic insects decline by as much as one third, compared to streams in undeveloped forested watersheds. We learned that there is no ’safezone,’ meaning that even minimal or early stages of development can negatively affect aquatic life in urban streams.

–Tom Cuffney, USGS biologist

As a watershed becomes developed, the amount of pavement, sidewalks and other types of urban land cover increases. During storms, water is rapidly transported over these urban surfaces to streams. The rapid rise and fall of stream flow and changes in temperature can be detrimental to fish and aquatic insects. Stormwater from urban development can also contain fertilizers and insecticides used along roads and on lawns, parks and golf courses.

Stream protection and management is a top priority of state and local officials, and these findings remind us of the unintended consequences that development can have on our aquatic resources. The information has been useful in helping us to predict and manage the future impacts of urban development on streams and reinforces the importance of having green infrastructure to control stormwater runoff and protect aquatic life.

–Tom Schueler, Chesapeake Stormwater Network

USGS studies examine the effects of urbanization on algae, aquatic insects, fish, habitat and chemistry in urban streams in nine metropolitan areas across the country: Boston, Mass.; Raleigh, N.C.; Atlanta, Ga.; Birmingham, Ala.; Milwaukee-Green Bay, Wis.; Denver, Colo.; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Portland, Ore.

These USGS studies also show that land cover prior to urbanization can affect how aquatic insects and fish respond to urbanization. For example, aquatic communities in urban streams in Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth and Milwaukee did not decline in response to urbanization because the aquatic communities were already degraded by previous agricultural land-use activities. In contrast, aquatic communities declined in response to urbanization in metropolitan areas where forested land was converted to urban land, areas such as Boston and Atlanta.

Comparisons among the nine areas show that not all urban streams respond exactly the same. This is mostly because stream quality and aquatic health reflect a complex combination of land and chemical use, land and storm-water management, population density and watershed development, and natural features, such as soils, hydrology, and climate.

These USGS studies represent an integrated approach to understanding urban streams that includes physical, chemical and biological characteristics associated with urbanization. This is critical for prioritizing strategies for stream protection and restoration and in evaluating the effectiveness of those strategies over time.

For more information, listen to USGS Corecast Episode 127.

The full report and extended video podcasts are available at the National Water Quality Assessment program urban studies website.

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Highlights of PennFuture’s 7^th Annual Watershed Workshop

With a clear focus on Philadelphia’s remarkable new stormwater management program, including its relatively new stormwater management regulations for new/redeveloped projects as well as the revolutionary new stormwater fee rate program, PennFuture hosted a large audience at the Quaker Friends Center on Saturday April 17.  The platinum LEED Friends Center is itself testament to “new wave” stormwater thinking, with its vegetated roof, rain gardens, and runoff cistern storage/toilet recycling of captured rainwater.

Speakers included an array of leaders from the Philadelphia Water Department, including Christine Marjoram who outlined the new stormwater regulatory program and Joanne Dahme who described the stormwater fee rate program.  Dahme also detailed Philadephia’s unique Green Cities, Clean Waters effort to achieve dramatic progress in combined sewer overflow pollution reduction through “green infrastructure,” rather than the conventional gray structural systems.  Senior Attorney Brian Glass chaired the event; Pennfuture’s Rachel Vassar closed the conference with a summary of Marcellus Shale issues and challenges.

StormwaterPA’s just-released video on Philadelphia’s Green City, Clean Waters program is receiving accolades. It’ll be available soon on our Volume Two DVD (learn more about Volume One here if you haven’t seen it yet), but you can check it out here now:

Green City, Clean Waters from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.

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