Grantee Research Project Results
2016 Progress Report: An Integrated Strategy to Improve Green Infrastructure Approaches in the Urban Context: A Philadelphia Case Study
EPA Grant Number: R835557Title: An Integrated Strategy to Improve Green Infrastructure Approaches in the Urban Context: A Philadelphia Case Study
Investigators: Mandarano, Lynn , Toran, Laura , 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, 2015 through September 30,2016
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 created a campus monitoring program at Temple University to serve the objectives of demonstrating and evaluating green infrastructure (GI) technologies, identifying GI finance mechanisms, considering triple bottom line (TBL) (people, planet, and profit) benefits of GI, and considering transferability of the information collected. The monitoring program has incorporated a geophysical survey of soil characteristics to better understand how soils and infiltration rates differ across urban areas.
Progress Summary:
The research is being undertaken by investigators from five academic departments within Temple, and investigators from three other universities and Econsult Solutions. Sub-award agreements have been successfully negotiated with non-Temple organizations and all are pursuing the work tasks set forth in our research plan. Specific accomplishments are outlined below.
Green Campus Monitoring – Monitoring of urban soils, green infrastructure, experimental green roof plots, and associated modeling is providing information on performance of green infrastructure (GI). Based on monitoring, the blue roof site was retrofit to address performance concerns. The retrofit has been shown to increase storage time and was achieved for less than $50. This example shows the benefits of low cost monitoring to improve green infrastructure. Green roof vegetation experiments showed differences in survival and hydrographs for different species. Modeling was used to evaluate sensitivity to micro-discretization and showed relatively low variation for storm events but significant difference in mean runoff. Journal articles were submitted on low-cost monitoring (Toran, submitted), soil amendments (Olszewski and Eisenman, accepted), and integration of modeling and monitoring (Ryan et al., submitted). A masters student completed his thesis and undergraduate training as part of each of these projects (Zarella, 2016).
GI Finance Mechanisms – The ESI team has continued to refine and improve the original hedonic price model. Updates have included: incorporating additional real estate transactions and additional projects as well as exploring different distance measures and the impacts of different types of infrastructure investments as well as the number of projects.
Our updated results are consistent with our initial analysis. We have found that being located within a quarter-mile of a public project that has occurred at recreation center/park/school have increased property values by approximately 11.5%, other public investments (not located at a recreation center/park/school) have increased property values by 12.7%, while private projects have had a more modest impact – an increase of 1.7% for properties located within a quarter mile of a private project.
We will use the results of the regression models to estimate the aggregate impacts that stormwater infrastructure investments have had on property values.
Dynamic-TBL – Work on this task was suspended because the co-PI transferred to another university and a subcontract award is needed.
Collaborative Implementation – The Temple team finalized the development of the GIS-based model to assess the equitable distribution of public and private-sector GI projects and submitted a manuscript for publication in a leading journal on sustainability.
Future Activities:
Continued work on research tasks, including green campus monitoring, modeling property value impacts of GI, and finalizing the dTBL model. Securing approval of a scope of work change for the Collaborative Implementation task to pursue research findings.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 23 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
Green Infrastructure, sustainability, STEM, integrated assessmentProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe 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.