Urban Stormwater Management in the United States

Urban Stormwater Management in the United States

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2009-03-17

Total Pages: 611

ISBN-13: 0309125391

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The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.


Climate Vulnerability

Climate Vulnerability

Author:

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-03-15

Total Pages: 1086

ISBN-13: 0123847044

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Climate change has been the subject of thousands of books and magazines, scientific journals, and newspaper articles daily. It’s a subject that can be very political and emotional, often blurring the lines between fact and fiction. The vast majority of research, studies, projections and recommendations tend to focus on the human influence on climate change and global warming as the result of CO2 emissions, often to the exclusion of other threats that include population growth and the stress placed on energy sources due to emerging global affluence. Climate Vulnerability, Five Volume Set seeks to strip away the politics and emotion that surround climate change and will assess the broad range of threats using the bottom up approach—including CO2 emissions, population growth, emerging affluence, and many others—to our five most critical resources: water, food, ecosystems, energy, and human health. Inclusively determining what these threats are while seeking preventive measures and adaptations is at the heart of this unique reference work. Takes a Bottom-Up approach, addressing climate change and the threat to our key resources at the local level first and globally second, providing a more accurate and inclusive approach. Includes extensive cross-referencing, which is key to readers as new connections between factors can be discovered. Cuts across a number of disciplines and will appeal to Biological Science, Earth & Environmental Science, Ecology, and Social Science, comprehensively addressing climate change and other threats to our key resources from multiple perspectives


Urban Soils

Urban Soils

Author: Phillip J. Craul

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 1999-03-25

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9780471189039

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The soil which is found in large cities offer distinctive challenges to the landscape architect or horticulturist responsible for maintaining these urban plantings. Often compacted, contaminated, or otherwise unsuitable for use in major landscape projects, these soils require practical methods which can insure a successful outcome of a landscape project. This applications-oriented, introductory reference addresses numerous topics in the field of urban soil science.


Water, megacities and global change

Water, megacities and global change

Author: UNESCO

Publisher: UNESCO Publishing

Published: 2016-08-08

Total Pages: 93

ISBN-13: 9231001612

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"This book is the outcome of the International Conference 'Water, Megacities and Global Change', and represents the collective work of 33 authors and co-authors. It contains summaries of monographs on 15 emblematic megacities: Beijing, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Ho Chi Minh City, Istanbul, Lagos, London, Los Angeles, Manila Mexico, Mumbai, New York, Paris, Seoul and Tokyo. This edition provides unique information about water management in these megacities."--Final page of pdf.


Climate Adaptation and Resilience Across Scales

Climate Adaptation and Resilience Across Scales

Author: Nicholas B. Rajkovich

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1000470997

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Climate Adaptation and Resilience Across Scales provides professionals with guidance on adapting the built environment to a changing climate. This edited volume brings together practitioners and researchers to discuss climate-related resilience from the building to the city scale. This book highlights North American cases that deal with issues such as climate projections, public health, adaptive capacity of vulnerable populations, and design interventions for floodplains, making the content applicable to many locations around the world. The contributors in this book discuss topics ranging from how built environment professionals respond to a changing climate, to how the building stock may need to adapt to climate change, to how resilience is currently being addressed in the design, construction, and operations communities. The purpose of this book is to provide a better understanding of climate change impacts, vulnerability, and resilience across scales of the built environment. Architects, urban designers, planners, landscape architects, and engineers will find this a useful resource for adapting buildings and cities to a changing climate.


Legacy Cities

Legacy Cities

Author: J. Rosie Tighe

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

Published: 2019-06-13

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0822986884

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Legacy cities, also commonly referred to as shrinking, or post-industrial cities, are places that have experienced sustained population loss and economic contraction. In the United States, legacy cities are those that are largely within the Rust Belt that thrived during the first half of the 20th century. In the second half of the century, these cities declined in economic power and population leaving a legacy of housing stock, warehouse districts, and infrastructure that is ripe for revitalization. This volume explores not only the commonalities across legacy cities in terms of industrial heritage and population decline, but also their differences. Legacy Cities poses the questions: What are the legacies of legacy cities? How do these legacies drive contemporary urban policy, planning and decision-making? And, what are the prospects for the future of these cities? Contributors primarily focus on Cleveland, Ohio, but all Rust Belt cities are discussed.


Plant Selection for Bioretention Systems and Stormwater Treatment Practices

Plant Selection for Bioretention Systems and Stormwater Treatment Practices

Author: William F. Hunt

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-10-28

Total Pages: 65

ISBN-13: 9812872450

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As cities develop, more land is converted into impervious surfaces, which do not allow water to infiltrate. Careful urban planning is needed to ensure that the hydrologic cycle and water quality of the catchment areas are not affected. There are techniques that can attenuate peak flow during rain events and reduce the amount of metals, nutrients, and bacteria that enter the urban water cycle. This brief gives a short introduction on bioretention systems and documents the effectiveness of some 36 plant species in removing water pollutants. A summary on the maintenance requirements is also presented.


Framing the Challenge of Urban Flooding in the United States

Framing the Challenge of Urban Flooding in the United States

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-04-29

Total Pages: 101

ISBN-13: 030948961X

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Flooding is the natural hazard with the greatest economic and social impact in the United States, and these impacts are becoming more severe over time. Catastrophic flooding from recent hurricanes, including Superstorm Sandy in New York (2012) and Hurricane Harvey in Houston (2017), caused billions of dollars in property damage, adversely affected millions of people, and damaged the economic well-being of major metropolitan areas. Flooding takes a heavy toll even in years without a named storm or event. Major freshwater flood events from 2004 to 2014 cost an average of $9 billion in direct damage and 71 lives annually. These figures do not include the cumulative costs of frequent, small floods, which can be similar to those of infrequent extreme floods. Framing the Challenge of Urban Flooding in the United States contributes to existing knowledge by examining real-world examples in specific metropolitan areas. This report identifies commonalities and variances among the case study metropolitan areas in terms of causes, adverse impacts, unexpected problems in recovery, or effective mitigation strategies, as well as key themes of urban flooding. It also relates, as appropriate, causes and actions of urban flooding to existing federal resources or policies.


The Urban Forest

The Urban Forest

Author: David Pearlmutter

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-02-27

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 3319502808

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This book focuses on urban "green infrastructure" – the interconnected web of vegetated spaces like street trees, parks and peri-urban forests that provide essential ecosystem services in cities. The green infrastructure approach embodies the idea that these services, such as storm-water runoff control, pollutant filtration and amenities for outdoor recreation, are just as vital for a modern city as those provided by any other type of infrastructure. Ensuring that these ecosystem services are indeed delivered in an equitable and sustainable way requires knowledge of the physical attributes of trees and urban green spaces, tools for coping with the complex social and cultural dynamics, and an understanding of how these factors can be integrated in better governance practices. By conveying the findings and recommendations of COST Action FP1204 GreenInUrbs, this volume summarizes the collaborative efforts of researchers and practitioners from across Europe to address these challenges.


Intersections

Intersections

Author: Kathleen McCormick

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780874202823

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Based on worldwide public health data, this report lays out the premise for building healthy places and illuminates the role of the real estate and development community in addressing public health issues. This is an essential resource for public officials, real estate developers, engineers, consultants, and students of urban planning.