In urban areas most people can’t imagine, that there was once, or still is a stream underneath them. Many municipal urban planners are bringing these streams “to light,” by a process called daylighting. This includes bringing a stream to light, from underground, often by integrating storm water management and ecosystems. Daylighting can have many benefits, including ecological, economic, and social. We wrote about a daylighting project in Seoul, South Korea about a year ago. Since then daylighting has gotten exposure from cities like Seattle, Berkeley, Portland, and our very own San Francisco. Most of these streams and creeks, which have not been visible since the 1800’s are now viewable as sewers and pipes transformed underground in order to make room for urban development. With global warming on the rise, many cities cannot handle the pressure of rising stormwater runoff, often backing up water treatment plants, which directly affects the entire city. Urban planners are turning to daylighting as a resource to relieve pressure from stormwater runoff as well as connecting people with their water resources.

Seoul Stream Daylighted and Turned Into a Beautiful Public Space

Seoul’s landmark daylighting project involved tearing down a major divisive freeway through the heart of the city and replacing in, instead of with another vehicular transportation network, with an enhancement of the natural environment, a community amenity, and a stormwater management improvement.

Thornton Creek in North Seattle has just recently been daylighted in collaboration with a mixed-use, residential, commercial, and office, development adjacent to the Northgate Mall.

While daylighting seems like an extremely attractive option for urban water system improvements, there are also many issues related to daylighting. One of our engineer’s Adam writes, “While it’s easy to tout the benefits of daylighting from an academic or professional perspective, American municipalities often get caught up on fiscal constraints, searching for exaggerated untruths to defend inaction. Benefits vary depending on the location and scale of the drainage network, what habitats are associated with the stream, the local climate conditions, existing stormwater management conditions and infrastructure, and the scope of the daylighting project.”

Recently San Francisco has pondered upon the thought of using daylighting throughout the city, which would relive stormwater runoff pressures and would expose watersheds to the public. Show your support for the use of daylighting in San Francisco by attending the next community meeting here.

Last week one of our Engineers performed the final punch list walk through for the first phase of the Presidio Sustainability Center in San Francisco, which you may remember reading about here. This facility will be the home of the Seedhouse and Nursery Center, which will ensure the survival of California’s native plants in the Presidio and the Golden Gate National Parks. The center will be used for collection, incubation, germination, and growing of California’s native plants. California has up to 5,800 native plants and most are in rapid decline due to pressures from urban sprawl, agriculture, overgrazing, recreation impacts, and invasive non-native species. A majority of these plants are endemic to California, meaning they can only survive in California’s climate. The Seedhouse and Nursery Center is the first phase of completed work which is part of a planned Sustainability and Stewardship Center. This facility should be in full operation within two weeks, after obtaining an occupancy permit. Below is a rendering that we developed of the future build-out conditions and pictures taken on-site. Hopefully you can see the resemblances between the build and planned design.

Presidio Nursery House

Rendering of Presidio Seedhouse and Nursery Center

The ASLA Sustainable Sites Initiative is an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices. The new initiative is similar to LEED accreditation but it focuses on the site, which is not a big focus in current green building/development accreditation programs.

Sherwood is involved in several current projects that have submitted applications for the 2-year pilot program. We will be notified in late April whether these projects have been accepted and will of course keep you apprised as to what happens. Until then we encourage you to learn more about the program.

Daylighting urban streams has long made sense aesthetically, but now the environmental, traffic calming, and air pollution benefits can be quantified based on new studies of the famous Cheonggyecheon running through downtown Seoul.

From the New York Times:

Cities from San Antonio to Singapore have been resuscitating rivers and turning storm drains into streams. In Los Angeles, residents’ groups and some elected officials are looking anew at buried or concrete-lined creeks as assets instead of inconveniences, inspired partly by Seoul’s example.

By building green corridors around the exposed waters, cities hope to attract affluent and educated workers and residents who appreciate the feel of a natural environment in an urban setting.

Environmentalists point out other benefits. Open watercourses handle flooding rains better than buried sewers do, a big consideration as global warming leads to heavier downpours. The streams also tend to cool areas overheated by sun-baked asphalt and to nourish greenery that lures wildlife as well as pedestrians.

But four years after the stream was uncovered, city officials say, the environmental benefits can now be quantified. Data show that the ecosystem along the Cheonggyecheon (pronounced chung-gye-chun) has been greatly enriched, with the number of fish species increasing to 25 from 4. Bird species have multiplied to 36 from 6, and insect species to 192 from 15.

The recovery project, which removed three miles of elevated highway as well, also substantially cut air pollution from cars along the corridor and reduced air temperatures. Small-particle air pollution along the corridor dropped to 48 micrograms per cubic meter from 74, and summer temperatures are now often five degrees cooler than those of nearby areas, according to data cited by city officials.

And even with the loss of some vehicle lanes, traffic speeds have picked up because of related transportation changes like expanded bus service, restrictions on cars and higher parking fees.

“We’ve basically gone from a car-oriented city to a human-oriented city,” said Lee In-keun, Seoul’s assistant mayor for infrastructure, who has been invited to places as distant as Los Angeles to describe the project to other urban planners.

Photo courtesy of Sucraseed

Mowing your lawn may be able to provide you with a homegrown source of power for your home.  The Catskill Watershed Foundation started a study in central New York recently that will examine the feasability of pelletizing grass clippings into a form that can be burned in a pellet stove.  The study will look at cost effictiveness of the pellet process, as well as the heating efficiency of the stove (both indoor and outdoor) and air quality of the exhaust.

Irrigation water can be wasted in other ways.

Automatic sprinklers can be a useful tool.  But if the systems are not managed correctly, you might find a snow-covered yard being watered while the homeowners are away on vacation.

Maybe we’re coddling our plants.  Maybe they, too, can do more with less.  Check out this article from the San Francisco Chronicle.  There might be room to reduce the amount of water that is budgeted for irrigation in the design of rainwater harvesting systems.

It wasn’t by choice that Dan Lehrer cut off the water supply to his apple trees. When the irrigation system on his organic farm in Sebastopol broke down five years ago, repairing it was too costly, so his entire orchard of Red Rome Beauty and Golden Delicious went cold turkey.

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Accustomed to enjoying drip irrigation 24 hours a day for roughly five months at a time, the trees were thirsty and stressed, but began producing smaller fruit that was less waterlogged and resulted in notably richer and crisper apples. They ripened later and kept better in storage. Meanwhile, Lehrer saved a hefty chunk on his water bill and conserved thousands of gallons each season, both from his well and from the public supply - notable in this low-water area of western Sonoma County. His apples haven’t seen a drop from the tap since.

Sept 20, 2008

Our first SF volunteer event at Fort Funston Nursery was a success!  Thank you to all Sherwooders and friends for dedicating their Saturday morning in helping with transplanting of coyote bush, and planting strawberries.  Coyote bush is a native plant in California.  It is used mainly for landscaping, as they are naturally very useful for hedges, fence lines, and ground cover.  Our nursery manager, Sharon, commented on how very careful and detailed we were.  We had 18 volunteers in all and we transplanted about 2000 coyote plants.  Check us out working hard in our cool SDE volunteer t-shirts!

October 18, 2008

NY’s second volunteer event was with the ASCE Metropolitan Section’s Young Members Forum for New York Cares Day on October 18th.  SDE NY joined thousands of other people in revitalizing more than 100 New York City public schools by painting classrooms, adding new line games to playgrounds, reorganizing libraries, and planting flowers.  Take a look at the great pieces of art that NY painted.  We are so talented!  There are more photos on the ASCE Met Section website as well.

November 17, 2008

SDE SF’s most recent volunteer event was at the Presidio Nursery for the first part of the Bioswale Construction.  Volunteers removed asphalt and began excavating out the swale trench.   We definitely had quite a physical work out, as we had use picks to remove asphalt and base rock, and wheel barrow them up or down the slope depending on where they needed to go.  This was not easy folks… we got blisters and sore bodies to prove it.

Shout outs to John D. working on the final design and Drew for helping with the construction details.  THANK YOU to everyone that participated in this volunteer event.  If you want to join in the excite, our PART II will be happening this weekend on Saturday November, 22nd from 9:00-12:00 pm.  Please come early for bagels and coffee.

Sheep being led back to the ranch.

• Downtown Houston converts an above ground parking lot into a below grade parking lot with a park on top, creating open space downtown.
• Bike sharing programs are becoming more popular on college campuses, and getting more technologically advanced at the same time.
• The economic crisis and the decrease in gasoline and fuel costs may cause the renewable energy trend to stall.
• California’s energy efficient policies have created close 1.5 million jobs over the last 30 years, while losing less than 25,000. Since consumers were spending less on energy, they spent more on other areas, creating jobs.
• Google has created a Halloween themed energy savings calculator for greening your home.
• Charging your phone or ipod while you walk may become a reality.
• Corn ethanol uses a lot of water - 36 gal of water per mile driven by a typical car on the fuel.
• Some people are taking living green a bit too far, leading people to make a new term for them - energy anorexics or carborexics.
• A device called the Blade can attach on to the tail pipe of almost any car out there and filter particulate matter from the tail pipes. The device costs $199 and the filters that come with it are good for two years.
• Hybrid buses, produced by a local company, are under-performing in Toronto, despite successes in San Francisco and New York. It may be because they are used primarily on suburban routes, where stop and go traffic, where hybrids perform best, aren’t as regular occurrences.
• A car that runs off of compressed air is currently in development.  It can reach top speeds of 40 mph, with a range of greater than 130 miles and can seat three.  Prototypes are expected to be available in Europe next year, hitting the US in 2010.
• Both of the candidates have plans involving plug-in and alternative energy vehicles.  Obama’s plan involves converting the White House fleet to plug-ins while McCain’s plan focuses on a $300 million prize to develop more a economical battery.
• Working towards its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2010, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will start a program to allow commuters to purchase carbon offsets.
• For the first time in over 30 years, a nuclear power plant might be constructed in the US.  34 nuclear power reactors are planning on seeking permission to build from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the next year, the majority of which will be built in the south.  This boom is bringing a lot of construction to the south as well, some of which is for export.
• Using sheep to graze away the weeds on large swaths of land is a growth industry.  Its a low fossil fuel endeavor, has aesthetic appeal, and produces wool and meat as byproducts.

Fishing in the Pontine Marshes via The New York Times

• An American professor proposes to highly engineer a solution to the severe degredation of the Pontine Marshes in Italy, rather than try and restore it to its original conditions.
• Global warming may not cause the permafrost to thaw, despite earlier worries, says a study from the latest issue of Science.
• Portland, OR is the United State’s greenest city, according to a SustainLane ranking, with San Francisco at the number 2 spot and NYC at number 5.
• The problem with solar power is that where there is you can only use it when its sunny. Or can you? The DOE is investing $67 million in research projects to try and advance solar power storage. They are also investing money in cleantech water projects such as those that look at wave, tidal and current-driven hydro power.
• As fuel costs rise, more and more projects are in development to harness ocean and tidal power, with hopes of moving from testing phase to full blown energy projects.
• The Clinton Global Initiative had a large meeting last week, including speeches from Al Gore and the president of Coca Cola, pledging to attempt to achieve water neutral activities.
• Chrysler announces three electric car prototypes, including one that will be tested with fleets next year and hit the production lines in 2010.
• TreeHugger profiles 11 buildings featuring living walls.
• NY City Council seems like its on its way to making the city a bike friendlier place by supporting a bill that would require commercial landlords to allow tenants to bring bikes inside. Rather than come up with a bike parking requirement, this forces the landlord to decide how they are best going to handle the bikes.