Category: stormwater

  • Daily Drawdown 13: Urban Forests

    This is the thirteenth in an ongoing series illustrating the relationship of Drawdown strategies to landscape architecture. For context, read the initial post here. My presentation for Grey to Green is right around the corner, so if you’re at the conference come check it out (Thursday, April 5th in Toronto), so this will be the…

  • Daily Drawdown 9: Water

    This is the ninth in an ongoing series illustrating the relationship of Drawdown strategies to landscape architecture. For context, read the initial post here. Water is fundamental to discussions about climate change. Specifically the major shifts in water that will occur through global warming — droughts, extreme precipitation events, storm surge, and sea level rise,…

  • Daily Drawdown 6: Coastal Wetlands

    This is the sixth in an ongoing series illustrating the relationship of Drawdown strategies to landscape architecture. For context, read the initial post here. There are a number of solutions mentioned in Drawdown that interface with the natural environment, and in doing so have a direct interface to landscape architecture. Coastal Wetlands are an important…

  • Daily Drawdown 3: Green Roofs

    This is the third in an ongoing series illustrating the relationship of Drawdown strategies to landscape architecture. For context, read the initial post here. In the last post, I focused on a Drawdown topic, Refrigerant Management, that seemed out to be well outside of the scope of landscape architecture, to point out that we have…

  • Daily Drawdown 1: Lessons for Landscape Architects

    As you delve into the various publications related to climate change, you find it runs the gamut from impenetrable to porous. I personally find much of design writing on the subject a bit toothless, and as far as scientific writings, the NCA4 pretty readable and compelling, whereas the IPCC reports require a bit of a…

  • Climate in Oregon

    The scientists at the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI) issued some state-specific information that augments other national climate reports. Their Fourth Oregon Climate Assessment Report was issued at the end of January 2019, focusing specifically on the “state of knowledge of climate science as it pertains to Oregon” The concise report outlines key issues…

  • The Shape of Water

    An amazing resource posted on ASLA’s The Dirt (here) focuses on Design Guidelines for Urban Wetlands, specifically what shapes are optimal for performance. Using simulations and physical testing to investigate hydraulic performance the team from the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) at MIT.  Led by Heidi Nepf, Alan Berger and Celina Balderas Guzman along with a team…

  • Connecting Green

    Although not a new idea, the concept of connected green roofs that emerge from the ground on to structure is a persist, compelling idea, essentially blending building and site and maximizing green space, habitat, and square footage through layering of uses. A trio of projects show the variations on that theme.  First, via Designboom, the…

  • Living Shorelines

    Amidst the political crazy we like to call our United States government, and specifically what seems like a daily dismantling of environmental policies, there’s at least some folks at work on alternatives.  Per a recent ASLA Advocacy brief: “On December 1, 2017, Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (NJ) introduced H.R. 4525, the Living Shorelines Act of 2017.…

  • Why Cities Need More Green Roofs

    Nice video from NPR on Why Cities Need More Green Roofs.  From the summary. “We took a field trip to the largest green roof in New York City. Then we imagined what the city could be like if all of its roof space was green.”