Grantee Research Project Results
2010 Progress Report: Cuyahoga Sustainability Network
EPA Grant Number: X3832305Title: Cuyahoga Sustainability Network
Investigators: Schwartz, Stuart S. , Reichert, Alan , Bradley, Allen , Mikelbank, Brian , Schwarz, Terry
Institution: University of Maryland - Baltimore County , Kent State University , Cleveland State University , University of Iowa
Current Institution: University of Maryland - Baltimore County , Cleveland State University , Kent State University , University of Iowa
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: May 1, 2005 through November 1, 2010
Project Period Covered by this Report: May 1, 2009 through November 1,2010
Project Amount: $286,423
RFA: Collaborative Science & Technology Network for Sustainability (2004) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Sustainable and Healthy Communities , Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development
Objective:
Assuring the sustainability of land development and ecosystem services at the urban suburban interface presents a ubiquitous challenge and rich opportunity to apply science and engineering to sustainable development. In Northeast Ohio, as in most of the Nation, market-driven land development decisions, modulated by hydrologic design for site development and stormwater management, shape the cumulative stressors that drive aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem responses. Yet the gaps between current decision making, and our emerging understanding of land use-hydrologic-ecosystem interactions pose some of the greatest challenges to sustainable development in the Nation’s urban-suburban metroplexes. These challenges also represent timely opportunities to enrich and rationalize decision making by matching science and technology applications to key information gaps that inform a systems-approach to land transformation decisions.
To address this timely challenge, the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) has undertaken the Cuyahoga Sustainability Network to cultivate a systems-oriented application of science and engineering to sustainable development, focusing on land transformation decisions and ecosystem serves at the urban-suburban fringe. Land use decisions are linked to urban streams through the milieu of physical, chemical, thermal, and hydrologic stressors that are communicated to stream systems in urban runoff, and moderated by engineering practices in site design and stormwater management technologies. Land use decisions are also driven by economic incentives and financial constraints, and the historical context and values that define a sense of place for neighborhoods, communities, and regions. Together with the economic and social dimensions of land development, practical applications of urban ecology and urban stormwater management can better inform land use decision making, including individual decision making (e.g., housing preferences); municipal decision making (zoning, stormwater ordinances, open space preservation); and regulatory decision making (use attainability analyses, urban stream standards).
The CSN integrates regional partnerships and interdisciplinary expertise spanning the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable decision making, focused at the intersection of land transformation decisions and their consequences for urban ecosystems. Collectively, the proposed program elements address essential information needs that couple the multi-scale effects of land transformation decisions to ecosystem responses in urbanized streams. With a regional focus on the Cuyahoga River Valley and its built environments, the Cuyahoga Sustainability Network will cultivate a portfolio of collaborative science and technology applications to support sustainable decision making at the intersection of natural systems, engineered systems, and human social and institutional systems.
Progress Summary:
Ecosystem Services - Urban Stream Ecology
Future Activities:
The planned completion of the project will synthesize results and contributions in a final project report, including project papers and reports to date, and the following final reporting elements currently under development.
- A manuscript on field testing, clogging and maintenance of pervious concrete – characterizing testing and maintenance protocols for the sustainable maintenance of this green infrastructure technology.
- Summary technical report on initial monitoring of EPA pervious pavements in Edison, prepared in collaboration with EPA staff.
- Manuscript on effective curve number (ECN) as consistent criteria to characterize hydrologic services for stormwater volume control, using integrated BMP Templates, pervious concrete and green roofs as transferable examples of sustainable stormwater technologies.
- TITAN analysis of Ohio’s biological data for nutrient criteria demonstrating more sensitive and reliable criteria to link landscape form to biological response and ecosystem services.
- The contributions to spatial decision making will be detailed in a series of manuscripts describing the Biogeography Based Optimization algorithm and its application to spatial decision making, along with exemplar analyses of applications to biological reserve design. The final products will focus on the application of multiobjective BBO to the land management problems of the Cleveland Metropark reserves.
- One of the overarching contributions from this project is our perspective on the design of sustainable landscapes and, in particular, the need—and the opportunity—to move beyond simple decision heuristics (such as impervious area caps) as indicators and arbiters of sustainable urban/suburban form. The need for a new integrative paradigm is driven by the ubiquitous decoupling of form and function resulting from modern land transformation, and the emergence and demonstration of feasible (albeit prototype) tools to help land managers support more sustainable land transformation decisions. Referring to the “common wisdom” concerning impervious area thresholds as the sine qua non of sustainable urban landscapes, we characterize this synthesis as the need for sustainable land transformations to evolve “Beyond Imperviousness”. To summarize this overarching finding of the Cuyahoga Sustainability Network, we are preparing a synthesizing manuscript with the working title, Beyond Imperviousness.
- A final project report will synthesize activities and accomplishments in env. Economic and social dimensions of sustainability.
In planning the conclusion of this project, we propose to complete spatial decision case studies with the Cleveland Metroparks and the analysis of BMP templates and effective curve number in house with UMBC personnel. To support these concluding activities, we request approval to reallocate the remaining funds in the contractor budget to internal staff support at UMBC.
References:
Baker, M. E., and R. S. King (2010), A new method for detecting and interpreting biodiversity and ecological community thresholds, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 1, 25-37.
Hanlon, B. (2008), The decline of older, inner suburbs in metropolitan America, Housing Policy Debate, 19, 423-456.
Hanlon, B. (2009), A Typology of Inner-Ring Suburbs: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in US Suburbia, City & Community, 8, 221-246.
Hanlon, B., et al. (2006), The new metropolitan reality in the US: Rethinking the traditional model, Urban Studies, 43, 2129-2143.
Schwartz, S. S. (2010), Effective Curve Number and Hydrologic Design of Pervious Concrete Storm-Water Systems, J. Hydrol. Eng., 15, 465-474.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 19 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
RFA, Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, Scientific Discipline, Sustainable Industry/Business, POLLUTION PREVENTION, cleaner production/pollution prevention, sustainable development, Sustainable Environment, Technology for Sustainable Environment, decision-making, Urban and Regional Planning, Economics & Decision Making, policy analysis, spatial landscape model, policy making, urban planning, Cuyahoga River Valley, decision making, environmental decision making, education, environmental sustainability, community based environmental planning, information dissemination, environmental policy, sustainable urban environment, outreach and education, public policy, spatial decision technology, decision support toolProgress 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.