Mary Dehais Copyright (c) 2012 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/mary_dehais Recent documents in Mary Dehais en-us Sun, 25 Nov 2012 16:14:59 PST 3600 Bioretention: Evaluating their Effectiveness for Improving Water Quality in New England Urban Environments http://works.bepress.com/mary_dehais/3 http://works.bepress.com/mary_dehais/3 Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:45:24 PST Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is one of the leading causes of water quality problems in the United States. Bioretention has become one of the more frequently used stormwater management practices for addressing NPS pollution in urbanized watersheds in New England. Yet despite increased acceptance, bioretention is not widely practiced. This study explores and evaluates the efficacy of bioretention for protecting urban water quality.

This research found that numerous monitoring methods are used by researchers and industry experts to assess the effectiveness of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) and low impact development (LID) practices that include bioretention. The two most common methods for analyzing and evaluating water quality data are pollutant removal efficiency and effluent quality. While effluent quality data is useful for characterizing classes of BMP treatment performance on a statistical basis, pollutant removal efficiency is more representative of the actual pollutant load being reduced by the stormwater treatment practice over time, and is used in Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) assessments. However, despite this difference, monitoring is still arguably the best method for determining the effectiveness of stormwater treatment practices.

Monitoring of bioretention performance results is needed to inform improvements to design standards and guidance to aid state and local municipalities in the proper selection of bioretention/stormwater controls. This study advocates for instituting fine-scale, “safe-to-fail” design experiments as part of an adaptive management process that is used to advance bioretention design guidance and future applications of monitoring practice(s) that target reduction of pollutants in downstream receiving waterbodies. This innovative approach could result in increased use of bioretention in New England urban environments.

]]> Mary Dehais Fairmount Greenway - A Community Initative http://works.bepress.com/mary_dehais/2 http://works.bepress.com/mary_dehais/2 Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:45:23 PST This studio was based on the Fairmount Greenway that was developed through a series of public meetings with the neighborhood community and with consultants from the firm Crosby, Schlessinger and Smallridge (CSS). The Fairmount Greenway, while drawing its identity from the traditional greenway model is in fact a reinterpretation of an urban greenway. The greenway path follows along both primary and secondary city streets because of the lack of space along the rail right-of-way. The Fairmount Greenway begins at what will be a new station stop at New Market South Bay near Upham’s Corner in northern Dorchester. The greenway follows adjacent to the Indigo transit line, the commuter rail that connects South Boston communities with South Station situated in proximity to Boston’s central business and tourist districts. The greenway corridor, like the transit line, stretches along a strong central north-south axis but does not follow a straight line. Instead the greenway veers east and west through Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park crossing the Indigo line at Ceylon Park, Geneva Avenue, Washington Street, under the historic Woodrow Avenue Bridge, Morton Street and River Street near the Neponset River Greenway. The greenway terminates at the Readville Station in Hyde Park. Secondary auxiliary loops extend from the central corridor connecting various recreational, cultural and economic sites with the greenway. These extensions also connect with the greater regional green space network, which will be described more in detail in the assessment to come. The defining third component of the Fairmount Greenway is the periodic greenspaces that fall along the greenway corridor. Some of these public spaces currently exist as parklands and community gardens; others are primarily publicly owned vacant lots that are planned for future development.

]]> Leah H. Bamberger et al. From the Quadrangle to the River: Revitalizing the Heart of Downtown Springfield http://works.bepress.com/mary_dehais/1 http://works.bepress.com/mary_dehais/1 Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:45:21 PST This studio report explores community service learning in the graduate urban design studio taught in the in Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and instructed by Professor Frank Sleegers.

The project will began with a visioning workshop, conducted to engage community members in the shaping of project goals and objectives within the project area of downtown Springfield. These findings were brought to the studio and guided the design process and outcomes.

Five design teams developed five alternative master plans for the core area of downtown Springfield with focus on the revitalization of open space and the connection of the urban axis from the Quadrangle to the Connecticut River. These five design strategies are recommendations to improve the livability of the heart of downtown Springfield for employers, employees, residents, and visitors.

Remarkable for this studio was a simultaneous collaboration with another Landscape Architecture Studio and an Architecture Studio at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. These studios were coordinated through the UMass Amherst Design Center that was launched in the spring of 2010.

The public response to the work of the three studios resulted in the reopening of Pynchon Plaza – a pocket park in the axis of the Quadrangle to the River that had been closed down for 35 years.

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