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Towards Urban Sustainability: Impact of Blue and Green Infrastructure on Building Smart, Climate Resilient and Livable Cities
Published in Vikram Bali, Rajni Mohana, Ahmed A. Elngar, Sunil Kumar Chawla, Gurpreet Singh, Handbook of Sustainable Development through Green Engineering and Technology, 2022
The water-related infrastructure is different from the conventional water-management approaches and integrates the discipline of urban/landscape planning. It involves the urban water cycle and includes solutions such as rainwater use, wastewater treatment, detention, and infiltration, etc. At the building level, rainwater harvesting mechanisms with focus on the reuse of wastewater would play an important role. At the macro level, it includes large-scale solutions to prevent urban flooding, stormwater management, runoff and groundwater recharge, etc., while relieving the existing grey infrastructure from collapse/overburden of sewer system. The green infrastructure focuses on resolving issues related to micro-climatic conditions, enhancing capabilities of ecological systems, enhancing social and health values by integrating vegetation within the urban areas, e.g. parks/open spaces/river landscapes, green spaces, vertical greening, etc.
The Clean Water Act
Published in Louis Theodore, R. Ryan Dupont, Water Resource Management Issues, 2019
Louis Theodore, R. Ryan Dupont
Starting in the late 1980s, efforts to address polluted runoff from nonpoint sources have increased significantly. For nonpoint runoff from agricultural sources, voluntary programs, including cost sharing with landowners, are the key tool. For wet weather sources from urban stormwater runoff, increasingly stringent treatment requirements for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) have come into existence through Phase I regulations on medium and large cities in 1990, and Phase 2 regulations for small urban and rural MS4s in 1999 to obtain permits for stormwater discharge that require stormwater management programs to be developed to limit the impact of stormwater discharges on receiving water quality. A significant emphasis on the EPA’s current stormwater guidance is on the use of Green Infrastructure to collect, treat, and infiltrate stormwater throughout a watershed, rather than using the conventional approach of collection and conveyance of stormwater for discharge to surface water bodies. More information regarding the EPA’s Green Infrastructure program can be found at https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure.
Shaping urban environments around transportation innovation
Published in William Riggs, Disruptive Transport, 2018
Michael Johnson, William Riggs
New technologies have allowed us to think differently about infrastructure in our cities. Advancements in renewable energy production and storage technologies that harness the power of the sun, wind, earth, and water, coupled with the opportunity to create more resilient, less centralized micro-grids, will reshape the way our cities are powered in the future. Similarly, water management in our cities is undergoing similar innovations emphasizing more local, district, and site-based systems and solutions. As defined by the American Society of Landscape Architects, green infrastructure is the overarching term that has been used to describe nature-based solutions in our cities to absorb and sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), filter air and water pollutants, stabilize soil, provide habitat, reduce energy use, improve water quality, and provide flood mitigation. Green infrastructure is crucial to combating climate change, while creating healthy built environments, and improving quality of life (ASLA 2018). When combined with advancements in technologies, specifically MaaS and AVs, there is an incredible opportunity to rethink the way spaces in our cities are used.
Public response to the appearance of ecological urban park design: the battle between the ‘picturesque’ and the ‘messiness’
Published in Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, 2023
The term ecological design emerged in the fields of architectural and landscape design and planning in the late 1960s (Kallipoliti, 2018). Since ecological design is described broadly as ‘any form of design that minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with living processes’ (Van der Ryn & Cowan, 2007, p. 33), the term embraces a variety of design activities – including regional planning, landscape planning, architectural design and product design, just to name a few. For ecological landscape design, specifically, it refers to the incorporation of ecology into design in order to create a landscape that fits well with the natural systems of its site and surrounding, forming an ecologically sound and sustainable landscape. The ecological landscapes, with the use of native species, permeable pavements, local materials and so on, value and make use of the services nature freely provide. Hence, they require less maintenance than conventional landscapes which contain a number of hardscapes, lawns and exotic plants (Danler & Langellotto-Rhodaback, 2015). In addition, these ecological landscapes themselves can also function as green infrastructure which supply ecological services, such as cleaning air, infiltrating and treating stormwater, reducing flood risks, recharging groundwater and providing wildlife habitat, for cities in which they locate.
Water Corridors Management: A Case Study from Iraq
Published in International Journal of River Basin Management, 2022
Ihsan Abbas Jasim, Laheab A. Al-Maliki, Sohaib K. Al-Mamoori
Used in this context, green infrastructure provides an ecological framework for environmental, social, and economic health, i.e., our natural life-support system. Improving the functional and spatial connectivity of these landscapes is a prerequisite for the mitigation and adaption to climate change and increases the value of the goods and services that ecosystems provide (Grimm et al., 2008; Hodgson, Thomas, Wintle, & Moilanen, 2009) and thereby moving towards achieving urban sustainability (Weber, Sloan, & Wolf, 2006). Green urban infrastructure has the potential to reduce the adverse effects of climate change in urban areas and enhance urban resilience and sustainability (Demuzere et al., 2014; Meerow & Newell, 2017; Saaroni et al., 2018; Staddon et al., 2018). The heat island is another effect that can be counteracted by green infrastructure (Dwivedi & Mohan, 2018; H. M. P. I. K. Herath, R. U. Halwatura, & G. Y. Jayasinghe, 2018; Tiwari, Kumar, Kalaiarasan, & Ottosen, 2020; Venter, Krog, & Barton, 2020; Yao, Li, Xu, & Xu, 2020).
Urban living walls: reporting on maintenance challenges from a review of European installations
Published in Architectural Science Review, 2020
Kanchane Gunawardena, Koen Steemers
Green infrastructure enhancements are widely advocated to address urban climate risks such as increasing temperatures and pollution. In cities with dense morphologies and reduced open spaces, surface greening has received increased attention as means to resourcefully achieve such enhancements (Gunawardena and Kershaw 2016; Gunawardena, Wells, and Kershaw 2017). Although initial efforts promoted horizontal greening, vertical greening has gained significant favour given the recent advancements in application methods. Industry experts and suppliers in the UK, for example, report an upward trend in commissions (Grant 2017; Ward 2018a), while the research body considering various ecosystem benefits is similarly expanding (Gunawardena and Steemers 2019b). Notwithstanding this growth trend, negative criticism associated with maintenance persists as a barrier for wider acceptance (Perini et al. 2013; Perini and Rosasco 2013).