Green Infrastructure 2014 - Working Group C

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Dear working group members. This is your group page and you will be completing the template gradually as we move through the seminar. Each member has an individual page for documenting his/her personal case. You can also access your template for assignment 4 (the joint design) from here. Good luck and enjoy your collaboration!

Assignment 2 - Lecture Concept Map

• REFLECTIVE WRITING- Mirsa GISHTI

Lecture 3: 11 November 2014, Prof. Gary AUSTIN, Stapleton-Denver Study Case, USA

I have always thought that the intervention in a landscape is a matter of planning process and different hierarchy responsibilities of the local or central government on one hand and the public interest on the other one. The study case of Stapleton, Denver USA is an example taken in a very different location, scale, climate, landscape regulations compared to my country Albania, that is why I was sure that it could bring within a lot of new approaches to learn, and it did! It made it very clear that for a landscape green infrastructure project we need to implement multi-functionality as a means to enhance the value of a place and to make it a better place for the people and living organisms too. Touching also the weak points of its realization I think it was very helpful for us as landscape architects to evaluate the future interventions in a more realistic way. The first step of this projects was the planning process, and I would like to underline the participatory planning importance and the transfer of the property to only one developer. I think it is crucial the people’s opinion and although not all the goals set by the public’s interest point of view were accomplished, it did make the results come closer to that, because it took place for about 2 years and this is a considerate amount of time to reflect on every aspects that influences the people’s lives. Also, the ability of the city of Denver to prepare parcels for development, attach development requirements and transfer the property to a developer guaranteed that the green infrastructure was implemented. Elsewhere, like in Albania for example, piecemeal development of smaller privately owned parcels and the absence of a regional vision result in reactionary planning processes, unintended cumulative impacts and poor-quality built environments.

Secondly, ecological network restored at Stapleton was another important issue discussed in this lecture. Habitat and Ecological Corridors were: 1 - Prairie Reserve; 2 - National Wildlife Refuge; 3 - Central Park; 4 - Bluff Lake Nature Center; 5 - Westerly Creek; 6 – Greenway

It was very noticeable the fact that the connectivity between these habitats made this network efficient. We know that small habitat remnants can provide high quality habitat if connected to other habitat fragments. This was the case of Bluff Lake: It is rather small to act as a complete territory for large animals or raptors. However, its connection to other large habitat areas increases its value. Or: the Stapleton Greenway is an east-west 100 m wide multi-use corridor that connects to Westerly Creek. Because of the connection, the habitat value is increased.

Furthermore, these habitats serve to the environmental education development solution that was given by the planners. I agree with the professor that locating schools adjacent to the Greenway and other habitat areas encourage this a lot. This is a very foreign experience for us in Albania, it misses and needs an integrated vision to implement in the future.

The components of storm-water management discussed were the control of flooding, the channelization of streams/ rivers and the treatment of non-point source pollution. There were two typical alternatives for managing storm-water. The more individual one is called Low Impact Development, where water is captured and treated on the individual parcels, but this was not used in the Stapleton case. The other method is to collect the water from the parcels for storage and treatment at the neighborhood or municipal scale. I believe that techniques of storm-water harvesting with point source water management and purification can potentially make urban environments self-sustaining in terms of water. This is the case of this lecture’s study project. Stapleton adopted the second approach because this is a semi-arid environment and the water was needed to support the restoration of habitat in the Westerly Creek corridor. The storm-water pools that collected the water from the neighbourhood near there were the example that not only the water gets a safe and sustainable way to go, but also the living species, bacters and other plants grown in there got their nutrients like nitrogen etc, which for people is harmful. In addition to this kind of storm water style, the second one was a great example to show us that there were also urban style pools for harvesting storm-water, like the one that cleaned the water of Westerly Creek.

Community Agriculture was another function that we found present to the Stapleton study case and caught my attention. In USA is widely spread and is a commercial enterprise. It doesn’t work for the whole big market but only for the local one, making possible to create job opportunities for the area also. Furthermore these places of agriculture are used as educational points for children, increasing the interest and value to this function of their neighbourhood. In conclusion, I think that the Stapleton study case of green infrastructure is an amazing example of the way potential and endangered areas of rural and urban spaces should be monitored, planned and executed according to the local environment, style, tradition, nature, living species and inhabitants. The efficiency lies in integrating the community, taking multi-purpose interventions, enhancing the strengths, restoring the natural conditions and providing multi-functional spaces.

• Please add your collaborative concept map here by replacing the dummy image. Your map needs to have a new file name:

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  Green Infrastructure Case Study: Stapleton, Denver- Colorado USA, Gary Austin

Assignment 3 - Green infrastructure potential in your environment

• Assigned: Tuesday, October 28
• Due: Monday, December 1

There is one template page for each group member. The case could be a specific site in direct vicinity or a larger area in your region. The objective is to identify structures that have the potential to become elements of a green infrastructure strategy.

Presentation Slides Assignment 3

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  slide 1

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  slide 2

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  slide 3

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  slide 4

Assignment 4 - Collaborative Green Infrastructure Design

• Assigned: Tuesday, December 2
• Due: Tuesday, January 26

Presentation Slides Collaborative Design

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  Analytical Drawings

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  Projective Drawings

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  Design Synthesis

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