Ecosystem Services

Archive for the ‘Ecosystem Services’ Category

City Landscapes, Urban Habitat

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Technology, Urban Revitalization, Waste, Water Management on 11/30/2011 | 1 Comment »

The landfill of Kearny, New Jersey, is the site of Steven Handel’s early work restoring urban habitat. It is constructed on top of a wetland. The fill material specified for landfill cover make poor soils, and the railroads, interstates, and cloverleaf interchanges work as barriers to dispersal. His work began with a question: “What can a [...]

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The Race to SITES Certification

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Materials, Urban Design, Water Management, Wildlife on 11/02/2011 | 2 Comments »

Instead of a lofty discussion on the merits of different prerequisites and credits, Jose Alminana, FASLA, Andropogon, Angela Dye, FASLA, A. DYE Design, Hunter Beckham, ASLA, SWT Design, and Sarah Weidner Astheimer, ASLA, james corner field operations, launched into the practical challenges and rewards involved in applying the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) to new and existing projects and steering the first pilot [...]

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Restoration Ecology in Agrarian Landscapes

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Wildlife on 11/01/2011 | Leave a Comment »

The Conservation Agriculture Studio, established within Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, applies design sensibility along with conservation science to projects that are rooted in agrarian landscapes. At the ASLA 2011 annual meeting, Thomas Woltz, RLA, FASLA, principal at Nelson Byrd Woltz, said agrarian landscapes present an important opportunity for landscape architects to apply their broad skillset [...]

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Designing for Human Health

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Green Buildings on 10/12/2011 | 1 Comment »

In a session at the 2011 GreenBuild in Toronto, architects and engineers discussed how cities can employ novel approaches to improve public health. Efforts to restore rivers, and also create earthquake and wind-proof buildings, can help communities become healthier, and also more resilient to population growth and catastrophic weather events. The Value of Cleaning up Mexico City’s Rivers Elias Cattan, Taller13 Arquitectura [...]

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Becoming Greenest: Recommendations for a More Sustainable Washington, D.C.

Posted in Climate Change, Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Education, Environment, Forests, Green Buildings, Green Roofs, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Public Spaces, Real Estate Development, Renewable Energy, Residential Design, Smart Growth, Sustainable Materials, Sustainable Transportation, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Waste, Water Management on 10/11/2011 | 2 Comments »

Washington, D.C. leadership has requested input from a range of organizations as it develops a new “unified vision” and “comprehensive framework” for a more sustainable Washington, D.C. The end goal: to connect sustainability with economic development and become the number-one, most sustainable city in North America. Washington, D.C. is currently ranked eighth in a recent [...]

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Toronto’s Genius Project: Evergreen Brickworks

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Materials, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 10/06/2011 | Leave a Comment »

Evergreen Brickworks, a stellar project from Canada’s Evergreen non-profit, re-imagines a derelict 12-acre brownfield site, which was once a historic brickworks, in the heart of Toronto as a “center for learning on urban ecology.” At a session at the 2011 GreenBuild, Evergreen, an organization that asks people to ”imagine your city with nature,” and the team’s architects and [...]

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Two SITES Pilot Projects Tell All

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Waste, Water Management, Wildlife on 10/05/2011 | Leave a Comment »

Kevin Burke, ASLA, senior landscape architect with Atlanta’s ambitious Beltline project, and Constance Haydock, a landscape architect working in the northeast, have been moving through the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) pilot project phase and lived to tell about it. In their presentations at the 2011 GreenBuild, both forward-thinking practitioners mentioned that early on in their careers, [...]

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How to Do It: Measure for Green Infrastructure Success

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Materials, Urban Design, Water Management on 10/05/2011 | 1 Comment »

At the 2011 GreenBuild in Toronto, Jim Schuessler, ASLA, BNIM, and David Dods, URS Corporation, a dynamic landscape architect and engineer duo, outlined lessons learned from two years of research into stormwater management best practices in sites across Kansas City. Sampling results from rain gardens, bioswales, “treatment trains,” and other green infrastructure systems, they explained [...]

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ASLA Releases More than 475 Green Infrastructure Case Studies

Posted in Ecosystem Services, Environment, Green Roofs, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Water Management on 09/26/2011 | Leave a Comment »

The Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) recently started a national rulemaking process, with the goal of creating a new, comprehensive program to reduce stormwater runoff. The E.P.A. announced that during this rulemaking it will evaluate green infrastructure design techniques that mimic natural processes to evapo-transpire, infiltrate and recharge, and harvest and re-use stormwater. Typical green infrastructure systems for managing stormwater include green roofs and [...]

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Interview with Neil Chambers, Author of Urban Green: Architecture for the Future

Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Green Buildings, Landscape Architecture, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Design, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Water Management, Wildlife on 08/25/2011 | 1 Comment »

Neil B. Chambers, founder of Chambers Design, Inc. and Green Ground Zero, is an award-winning green designer with nearly 20 years of experience in the field of green building and infrastructure. He is the author of Urban Green: Architecture for the Future, and a contributing author to Treehugger. He is a national fellow with the [...]

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