Grantee Research Project Results

2015 Progress Report: An Integrated Strategy to Improve Green Infrastructure Approaches in the Urban Context: A Philadelphia Case Study

EPA Grant Number: R835557
Title: An Integrated Strategy to Improve Green Infrastructure Approaches in the Urban Context: A Philadelphia Case Study
Investigators: Featherstone, Jeffrey , Toran, Laura , Mandarano, Lynn , Weir, Mark
Current Investigators: Toran, Laura , Featherstone, Jeffrey , Mandarano, Lynn , Weir, Mark , Nyquist, Jonathan , Meenar, M. , Eisenmann, Sasha , Caplan, Joshua , Van Aken, Benoit , Ryan, Robert
Institution: Temple University , Villanova University , University of Pennsylvania , Morgan State University
Current Institution: Temple University , Morgan State University , University of Pennsylvania , Villanova University
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2018
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2014 through September 30,2015
Project Amount: $999,995
RFA: Performance and Effectiveness of Green Infrastructure Stormwater Management Approaches in the Urban Context: A Philadelphia Case Study (2012) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Water

Objective:

This project will create a campus monitoring program at Temple University, which will serve the objectives of demonstrating and evaluating green infrastructure (GI) technologies, identifying GI finance mechanisms, considering triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit) benefits of GI, and considering transferability of the information collected. The monitoring program will include a geophysical survey of soil characteristics to better understand how soils and infiltration rates may differ across urban areas.

Progress Summary:

Green Campus Monitoring. – The green campus monitoring has several field based tasks. The first year three new stormwater control measures were instrumented with low cost sensors to evaluate performance: a bioretention basin, a large infiltration trench that was designed to accommodate back flow from street combined sewer overflows, and a combination blue and green roof. In addition, small scale green roofs were built for a senior design experiment. The urban soils study is underway with the acquisition and training for a new ground-based LiDAR system that can provide microtopography data to correlate with geophysical and soil characterization. This system has been used to survey several stormwater areas, and one of them was modeled using the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) to compare different scales of topographic delineation. Two undergraduate and two graduate students were recruited to work on the project.

GI Finance Mechanisms. – First step has been to undertake a literature review of other similar studies that have been completed. We have been working with Morgan State University to complete this process. The results of the literature review will be used to help inform the structure of the model. The hedonic price model that will be used explore the impact that GI investments have on nearby property values. We will use the model to explore how the impacts vary based on the characteristics of the GI investments and the distance to the GI investments. We are in the process of classifying the GI investments in terms of ownership (public vs, private), type, and whether they are standalone investments or part of a larger network as other categories. Once the classification is complete, we will then begin exploring different ways to spatially relate the GI investments to nearby properties. The will allow us to explore the impact that the distance to GI investments have on the property value impacts. We are also working with Morgan State University to undertake a literature review

D-TBL. – The triple bottom line (TBL) modeling effort is currently two-fold. First we are attempting to replicate the Philadelphia Water Department’s (PWD) TBL model results. The second is the development of a dynamic TBL (dTBL). This dTBL is being structured in a risk framework to allow for ease of inclusion of multiple locations and expandability beyond single infrastructure types. This dTBL is reliant on a literature review populated database as well as an economic model being developed by Econsult Solutions LLC. Therefore the dTBL will be a smart mode that can communicate with the database for its inclusion in a GIS model and visualization tool.

Collaborative Implementation. – The assessment of the PWD’s collaborative approaches to implementing GI is comprised of several subtasks. During year one the team completed two comparative assessments of the implementation of GI programs in Washington DC and Prince Georges County, MD. The foundation for the team’s assessment of the equitable distribution of GI projects in the form of a GIS based model of public and private sector GI projects implemented to date has been established. In addition, the team developed a set of community context and capacity indicators, respectively inhibiting and empowering factors, to assess the influence of community capacity to be an effective partner in the PWD’s collaborative implementation approach on the distribution of GI projects implemented.

Future Activities:

Continue work on research tasks, including green campus monitoring, modeling property value impacts of GI, creating the dTBL model, and assessing collaborative implementation approaches.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 23 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

green infrastructure, sustainability, STEM, integrated assessment;

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.