ENSP 400: Capstone in Environmental Science and Policy

Proceedings of the International Low Impact Development Conference 2015, held in Houston, Texas, January 19-21, 2015. Sponsored by the Low Impact Development Technical Committee of the Urban Water Resources Research Council of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE. This collection contains 44 papers that address a broad range of topics for a sustainable approach to stormwater management using low impact development. Topics include: computational methods; community education and outreach; green infrastructure construction and performance; and landscape, planning, and site design.

With the infrastructure to manage storm water threats in cities becoming increasingly expensive to build or repair, the design community needs to look at alternative approaches. Living roofs present an opportunity to compliment ground-level storm water control measures, contributing to a holistic, integrated urban water management system. This book offers tools to plan and design living roofs, in the context of effectively mitigating storm water. Quantitative tools for engineering calculations and qualitative discussion of potential influences and interactions of the design team and assembly elements are addressed.

Proceedings of the 2010 International Low Impact Development Conference, held in San Francisco, California, April 11-14, 2010. Sponsored by the Low Impact Development Technical Committee of the Urban Water Resources Research Council of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE. Cosponsored by California State Water Resources Control Board and California Storm Water Quality Association. This collection contains 149 papers that address topics relevant to a sustainable approach to stormwater management using the Low Impact Development (LID) technology. The papers attempt to: promote the use of LID as an effective alternative for or integrated with traditional stormwater management, as well as examine successful watershed management practices related to protection of streams through hydromodification; consider how changes in the traditional urban drainage design paradigm interconnect with ideas of sustainability and green building and help create a constituency for more livable and sustainable cities; inform practitioners throughout the country on strategies to address and go beyond common impediments for implementation of these techniques; accelerate change in the practice of stormwater management, including an information exchange that intends to refine design processes, review procedures, and evaluate construction standards related to LID technologies; and to improve our collective understanding of how vegetation helps manage stormwater, intercept precipitation, expand urban greenspace, and improve urban livability.

Selected papers from the 2011 Low Impact Development Conference, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 25-28, 2011. Sponsored by the Low Impact Development Committee of the Urban Water Resources Research Council of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE. As federal, state, and local governments realize that traditional approaches to stormwater management are not achieving the desired environmental protection goals, they are increasingly adopting low impact development (LID) technology as the preferred approach to stormwater management in land development and redevelopment. Low Impact Development Technology: Design Methods and Case Studies contains 22 papers that address a wide range of LID design applications and includes a number of practical case studies.Topics include: rain gardens and bioretention systems; green streets and hardscapes; green roofs; and watershed restoration.

Get the definitive resource guide for sustainable site design, construction, and management. The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) is transforming land design, development, and management practices across the United States with the first national rating system for sustainable landscapes. The Sustainable Sites Handbook features comprehensive and detailed information on principles, strategies, technologies, tools, and best practices for sustainable site design. Contributors to this book are some of the same experts that carefully shaped the SITES rating tool, ensuring thorough coverage of the broad range of topics related to sustainable site design. The Sustainable Sites Handbook offers in-depth coverage of design, construction, and management for systems of hydrology, vegetation, soils, materials, and human health and well-being. Focusing primarily on environmental site design and ecosystem services, this wide-ranging guide also covers issues of social equity, economic feasibility, and stewardship, which are crucial to the success of any sustainable site. Equally useful as a handbook for obtaining SITES credits or for the independent development of sustainable sites, The Sustainable Sites Handbook is an indispensible resource for practicing professionals in landscape architecture, landscape design, architecture, civil engineering, land planning, horticulture, ecology, environmental engineering, landscape contracting, and parks and recreation management.

An essential addition to the landscape design library   Nature devises ingenious systems for the management and delivery of water in all its phases. No additional infrastructure is required--the water systems are in place, naturally. But once the natural environment has been disrupted by human development, stormwater becomes an issue that requires intervention and ongoing management. Sustainable Stormwater Management, by leading expert Tom Liptan, provides landscape students and professionals with a green approach to landscape design. The hardworking book includes comprehensive information on how to design, install, and maintain a landscape for sustainable stormwater management. It addresses stormwater in the urban environment, relevant environmental and economic policies, and shares case studies of exemplary projects from around the world.  

Sustainable Surface Water Management: a handbook for SUDS addresses issues as diverse as flooding, water quality, amenity and biodiversity but also mitigation of, and adaptation to, global climate change, human health benefits and reduction in energy use. Chapters are included to cover issues from around the world, but they also address particular designs associated with the implementation of SUDS in tropical areas, problems with retrofitting SUDS devices, SUDS modelling, water harvesting in drought-stricken countries using SUDS and the inclusion of SUDS in the climate change strategies of such cities as Tokyo, New York and Strasbourg.

The current literature compartmentalizes the complex issue of water and wastewater into its discrete components; technology, planning, policy, construction, economics, etc.  Considered from the perspective of sustainability, however, water in the urban environment must be approached as a single resource that can be continuously reused and recycled.  This book will be the first to capture all of the current work on this idea in a single, integrated, plan for designing the water-centric cities of the future.  From new construction to the retrofitting of existing systems, this book presents the case for a new urban relationship to water, one with a more sustainable connection to the environment and the hydrological cycle.  Through case studies of successfully planned and built systems around the world, the book will educate the reader about the need for a new approach to urban water management, and make the case that these changes are not only possible but imperative.

This book advocates a more thoughtful approach to urban water management. The approach involves reducing water consumption, harvesting rainwater, recycling rainwater and adopting Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) where surface water is not sent straight to drains but is intercepted by features like green roofs, rain gardens, swales and ponds.Cities in particular need to change the existing linear model of water consumption and use to a more circular one in order to survive. The Water Sensitive City brings together the various specialised technical discussions that have been continuing for some time into a volume that is more accessible to designers (engineers and architects), urban planners and managers, and policymakers.

This book assesses the challenges facing the world's cities in providing reliable, safe, and plentiful supplies through infrastructural, economic, legal, and political strategies. The book considers engineering, social science, and built environment issues, with close examination of experiences in California and Australia, and their global implications. It addresses urban stream syndrome and related issues' and includes historical as well as contemporary insights into water sustainability in cities. Conservation, wastewater re-use, green infrastructure innovations, and the water energy nexus from the vantage point of urban water management are discussed in depth.