Green Infrastructure
The California Strategic Growth Council has $140 million in cap-and-trade revenue for the new Transformative Climate Community program. The aim of the program is to catalyze environmental and economic investment in disadvantaged communities.
The Planning Report
Feature
The challenge facing the nation's infrastructure is massive in scale, requiring ambition lacking since the New Deal and Eisenhower eras. Building on those historic models, the following op-ed suggests a "WPA 2.0" approach to infrastructure.
A smart city pilot project, already in place at three locations in Chicago and on the way to two more, deploys sophisticated data gathering technology to measure the simple act of rainwater running downhill. Better green infrastructure will follow.
Data-Smart City Solutions
Chynoweth Avenue in San Jose, California is notorious for speeding, illegal dumping, and prostitution. The city's remedy includes a fairly comprehensive reconfiguration of the street and its infrastructure.
San Jose Mercury News
The American Society of landscape Architects is promoting a new guide to resilient landscape design, which examines hundreds of case studies for examples of infrastructure that works with nature, instead of against it.
ASLA The Dirt
A review of the current research into the effectiveness of green streets and green infrastructure finds gaps in our understanding of what works, and where.
Green Infrastructure
By combining the resources of the public and private sectors, Prince George County was able to greatly reduce the costs required to retrofit an aging stormwater system.
Bay Journal
An article details the nascent successes of an innovative program by Washington, D.C. to fund green infrastructure improvements to its stormwater and wastewater systems.
CityLab
Madrid, already famous for deciding to impose stringent limitations on driving, has a plan to blanket the city in green to increase its resilience to the effects of climate change.
Fast Co.Exist
These days, Big Data is the topic at hand, but Arup's Vincent Lee says data analysis can only go so far. He uses his work on the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program to illustrate why a "human element" is crucial to finding solutions.
Doggerel
Blog post
A city has always been understood and defined as a pattern of human settlement. This op-ed suggests that a city needs to be a product of its environment, rather than the environment simply being a product of it.
Blog post
A lot of people think exclusively of plants when they hear the term landscape. Without a common language to effectively describe it, the role landscape plays in the urban realm will remain undervalued.
There is increased call for inclusion and diversity in architecture. This London exhibition profiles five female architects and urban designers at the forefront of their profession.
The Guardian Cities
Successful Chicago urban agriculture projects on rooftop, in edible lawn, and at a school reviewed by resilience consultant Dave Hampton.
UrbDeZine
Take a kayak trip on the Los Angeles River with KQED science reporter Amy Standen to understand why cities were built on the premise of endless potable water and how we can build cities sustainably in regions that receive low rainfall.
KQED Science
Trees are a vital element of urban design, one that must considered at every stage of planning, design and development.
Congress for the New Urbanism
A new cross-disciplinary report cites 32 case studies to offer practical solutions for integrating trees into civic spaces and surface car parks.
Trees in Hard Landscapes: A Guide for Delivery
With a growing body of research to support the construction of infrastructure that supports, protects, and even mimics natural systems, the American Society of Landscape Architects has released a guide to green infrastructure.
ASLA The Dirt
The city of Berkeley is undergoing a pilot installation of permeable pavement for a road calming project by Berkeley High School. The pilot has better storm water drainage, a smaller carbon footprint, and less maintenance than traditional asphalt.
Berkeleyside
Blog post
Students of landscape architecture are obsessed with cities and all things green - at least according to recent design awards. But are they forgetting about design?
