2019 SWCS International Annual Conference July 28-31, 2019 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1. Design and Planning for Climate Smart Communities
Nancy Somerville, Hon. ASLA, Hon. AIA, SITES AP
Neil Weinstein, PE, RLA, AICP, ASLA, ASCE, ENV SP
Soil and Water Conservation Society
Pittsburgh, PA
July 30, 2019

2. ASLA Blue Ribbon Panel on Climate Change and Resilience
Diane Jones Allen, ASLA
University of Texas at Arlington
Armando Carbonell, FAICP
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Mark Dawson, FASLA
Sasaki Associates Inc.
Tim Duggan, ASLA
Phronesis
Ying-yu Hung, ASLA
SWA, Los Angeles Studio
Dr. Dwane Jones
University of the District of Columbia
Adam Ortiz
Prince George’s County, Maryland
Dr. Jalonne L. White-Newsome
The Kresge Foundation
Vaughn B. Rinner, FASLA
ASLA 2017 President
Nancy C. Somerville, Hon. ASLA
ASLA Executive Vice President and CEO

3. • Core principles
• Key design and planning
approaches for creating
healthy,
climate-smart, and
resilient communities
• Public policy
recommendations to
support those
approaches
Photo: ASLA
Smart Policies for a Changing Climate

4. Policies should:
 Use incentives whenever feasible
 Promote holistic planning and provide multiple benefits
 Address environmental justice and racial and social equity
 Reflect meaningful community engagement
 Be regularly evaluated, including for unintended consequences
 Address regional as well as local and site-specific goals/issues

5.  Natural Systems
 Community Development
 Vulnerable Communities
 Transportation
 Agriculture

6. Natural Systems
 Maximum use of green infrastructure
 Porous pavement technologies
 Protection and expansion of open space
and natural systems
 Increased tree canopy
 Wetlands, etc., as buffers
 Preservation of wildlands
 Biohabitat- and pollinator-supporting
vegetation

7. Natural Systems
 Prohibition on building on
floodplains
 Water conservation and water
reuse
 Protection of critical water sources
 Greenways and wildlife corridors
to support plant and animal
migration

8. Community Development
 Transit-oriented development with
multimodal green and complete
streets
 Reuse/redevelopment of brownfields
and grayfields
 Clean energy and energy efficient
solutions
 Walkable open space within a quarter
mile of all residential development

9. Vulnerable Communities
 Equitable access to transportation, housing,
jobs, recreation, and open space
 Environmental justice analyses as part of all
planning
 Mixed-income housing and mixed-used
development
 Relocation, retreat, and/or evacuation plans
 Limitations or prohibitions on building in fire-
prone areas

10. Transportation
 Transit-oriented development with green and
complete streets
 Equitable access to transportation options
 Green infrastructure and protection of natural
environment and habitat in transportation projects
 “Road diets” to improve safety and promote active
transportation
 Charging stations and accommodations for
new/emerging transportation modes

11. Agriculture
 Farmland preservation and protection of prime
soils
 Pro-active planning to address food deserts
 Promotion of urban and suburban agriculture
 Promotion of conservation farming practices
for healthy soils and carbon sequestration

12. Landscape Architects emerging role in the challenge
to address climate adaptation
• HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• SPHERES OF INFLUENCE
• OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTNERSHIPS AND LEADERSHIP

13. What will our urban riparian areas look
like? 1938, 1965, 2018, FUTURE!
Austin
Bladensburg

14. “Typical” urbanized riparian area
“

15. Climate Adaptation is not just about properties that are
located in the 100 Year floodplain and volume issues.
Localized flooding, water quality and supply, impacts
on infrastructure, air quality, equity, and mobility are
often overlooked in the discussion.

16. What is the effect of
more intense and
frequent rainfall?
“Cloudbursts”

17. Other Extremes (heat, cold, drought, humidity)

18. How Do Our Plant
Communities Respond?
Increase in the
number of high
temperature days
and higher
temperatures at
night
Where is my Cone
Flower?

19. Maybe we need some different approaches and answers to
these challenges!

20. About 25 years ago we began down this road. Low
Impact Development (LID)/Green Stormwater
Infrastructure (GSI): Natural processes to restore or
maintain hydrologic and ecological function or
targeted watershed goals.
20
• Low Impact Development
(LID): Site Scale
• Green Stormwater
Infrastructure (GSI):
Watershed and Large-Scale
Implementation

21. Nutrients, Carbon, Energy, Materials Recycling…..
21

22. Some tools! Green Stormwater Infrastructure/Low
Impact Development has unique and integrated
configurations
22

23. Storage and Processing
23
Permeable Pavement
Bioretention
Surface, Media, Gravel, Vaults….

24. Landscape Architects will have a critical role in
protecting and restoring watersheds through
Green Infrastructure planning and design
• Earlier definitions of Green
Infrastructure focused on integrated
open space
• 2007 MOA with EPA Office of Water
on Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO)
and then National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) Separate Storm Sewer
System (MS4) Permits
• Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI)

25. What is the
value to our
communities
for using
these tools?

26. Traditional Design & Infrastructure
Stream?

27. Old School
Detention/Retention

28. Decentralized stormwater
management practices

29. Range of options to achieve volume and rate control

30. Green Infrastructure at Multiple
Scales: Neighborhoods
Local/Neighborhood Scale
• Greater emphasis on
restoration activities such as
planting trees and installing
bioswales, restoring wetlands,
maintaining open spaces, and
incorporating existing
landscape features into site
design plans
• Focus  Stormwater
Management and Co-benefits

31. Co-Benefits of Green Infrastructure:
Leveraging of programs and funds
Town of Edmonston, Maryland
Green And Complete Street

32. …Co-Benefits
Energy, Safety, Green
Economy…

33. Bloomingdale Grey/ Green Solution
possible real time controls

34. Traditionally controls meant for sediment and pollutants
(nutrients and toxics). Starting to focus on ecosystem services
and co-benefits.
Urban Stream and
River Valleys

35. Use and access to
stream valleys and
corridors

36. Forms and functions of
restoration and
protection practices

37. Design
Choices

38. Implementation Policy and
Tools
• Master Plans
• Design Guides
• Codes and Ordinances
• Standards and
Specifications
• Revitalization and
Economic Development
Plans
NRPA Great Urban
Parks Guide
2018
1964

39. Prince George’s County, Maryland
• In 2000 the County was concerned with
increasing amount of development & impact
to natural resources
• Concern regarding loss of forests, especially
around riparian areas
• Established a Green Infrastructure Network:
• Regulated Areas
• Evaluation Areas
• Gap Areas
… to help direct growth away from these areas
• Now used in the development review
process to ensure areas are protected and,
where possible/necessary, restored

40. Regional Scale
Can lower average
summer
temperature
by up to 1 °
Fahrenheit
Allows you to ask questions: What
portions of the county are in greatest
need of more forest/tree cover to
increase protection from summertime
heat?
Prince George’s County
Green Infrastructure Study
Prevents 4.3 billion gallons of
polluted rain from entering the
storm drain per year – A $12.8
billion dollar savings
Offsets greenhouse gas emission of
161,000 passenger vehicles a year…
...and stores more CO2 than that
emitted by 5 power plants.

41. Microclimate Modifications/ Temperature
• Overall temperature reductions provided
by the tree and forest cover in Prince
George’s County, MD, is 0.29°C.
Depending on where you are in the
county, this can be greater or lower

42. Green Infrastructure From Watersheds To Regional Scale
• Interconnected network of
waterways, wetlands, woodlands,
wildlife habitats, and other natural
areas that maintain ecological
processes
• Preserve, create, or restore
vegetated areas and corridors
such as greenways, parks,
conservation easements, and
riparian buffers.
• Focus  Overall ecosystem

43. How we manage vegetation and plant materials and ecosystem
strategies for Linear Transportation Projects will be critical

44. It’s just a bunch of plants and some soil……

45. Heading
Management of existing traditional
infrastructure assets and potentially
competing priorities and resources

46. Take away:
• Really, Really, Really need interdisciplinary teams to
solve this
• Need some predictability/certainty on ecosystem
responses
• Need an adaptable approach that is scalable
• The leap from policy to implementation requires
pilot projects and persistence
• Messaging is critical

47. Key Public Policies to Support Natural Systems
 Provide dedicated funding for green
infrastructure
 Require new development to retain and
infiltrate precipitation on site
 Incentivize use of appropriate plant
species
 Adopt a green space plan
 Adopt a national urban and suburban
tree planting strategy
 Incentivize development that retains
appropriate vegetation

48. Key Public Policies to Support Natural Systems
 Adopt a national water protection and
management strategy
 Prioritize protection of critical water
sources
 Incentivize or require water conservation
and reuse technologies
 Protect wildlands
 Incentivize planning for plant and animal
migration
 Incentivize best practices in soil
management

49. Key Policies to Support Community Development
 Prioritize and incentivize brownfield and
grayfield rehabilitation
 Develop municipal and regional climate
resilience plans
 Support community land banking to
convert vacant/abandoned property
 Create community investment trusts to
fund green infrastructure
 Require walkable open space within ¼
mile of residential development

50. Key Policies to Support Transportation
 Require transit-oriented
development with multimodal,
green, and complete streets
principles
 Include affordable housing in TOD
 Address transit deserts
 Provide incentives for biking and
carpooling

51. Key Policies to Support Vulnerable Communities
 Restrict building in floodplains
 Update FEMA maps and include claims-
data analysis
 Reinstitute Federal Flood Risk
Management Standards
 Require environmental justice analyses
 Promote mixed-income housing and
mixed-use development

52. Key Policies to Support Agriculture
 Incentivize urban and suburban
agriculture
 Protect current farmland and prime
farmland soils
 Identify and address food deserts
 Promote healthy food education
 Incentivize conservation farming
practices

53. Based on ecosystem services
Grounded in research
 Site context
 Pre-design assessment
 Site design – water
 Site design -- soil and
vegetation
 Site design -- materials
 Site design – human health
 Construction
 Operations and maintenance
 Education and performance
monitoring

54. Resources
Smart Policies for a Changing Climate
report: www.asla.org/climate
www.asla.org/sustainablelandscapes
www.sustainablesites.org