The Sustainable Sites Handbook E-Book

Meg Calkins

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 879

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Get the definitive resource guide for sustainable site design, construction, and management. The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) is transforming land design, development, and management practices across the United States with the first national rating system for sustainable landscapes. The Sustainable Sites Handbook features comprehensive and detailed information on principles, strategies, technologies, tools, and best practices for sustainable site design. Contributors to this book are some of the same experts that carefully shaped the SITES rating tool, ensuring thorough coverage of the broad range of topics related to sustainable site design. The Sustainable Sites Handbook offers in-depth coverage of design, construction, and management for systems of hydrology, vegetation, soils, materials, and human health and well-being. Focusing primarily on environmental site design and ecosystem services, this wide-ranging guide also covers issues of social equity, economic feasibility, and stewardship, which are crucial to the success of any sustainable site. Equally useful as a handbook for obtaining SITES credits or for the independent development of sustainable sites, The Sustainable Sites Handbook is an indispensible resource for practicing professionals in landscape architecture, landscape design, architecture, civil engineering, land planning, horticulture, ecology, environmental engineering, landscape contracting, and parks and recreation management.

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copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Calkins, Meg, 1965-

The sustainable sites handbook: A complete guide to the principles, strategies, and best practices for sustainable landscapes / Meg Calkins.

p. cm. — (Wiley desktop editions)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-64355-6 (hardback); 978-1-118-10003-5 (ebk.); 978-1-118-10004-2 (ebk.); 978-1-118-10608-2 (ebk.); 978-1-118-10609-9 (ebk.); 978-1-118-10611-2 (ebk.)

1. Landscape ecology—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Sustainable development—

Evaluation—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. Environmental management—Evaluation-

-Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. Sustainable Sites Initiative. I. Title.

QH541.15.L35C35 2011

577.5’5—dc22

2011013754

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Jackson and Annie for your world

Foreword

Chapter 1: Introduction

Sustainable SITE Design Defined

The Contents and Structure of This Book

Chapter 2: Predesign: Site Selection, Assessment, and Planning

Site Selection

Understanding the Site

Team Development and Planning Strategies

Developing Project Direction: Principles, Goals, and Performance Targets

Chapter 3: Site Design: Water

Sustainable Stormwater Management

Stormwater Design Approaches

Water Conservation

Onsite Wastewater Treatment, Disposal, and Reuse

Chapter 4: Site Design: Vegetation

Vegetation and Ecosystem Services

Vegetation Protection Techniques

Sustainable Planting Design and Management

Chapter 5: Site Design: Soils

Integrating Soil into the Design Process

Soils in the Site Assessment

Soil Characteristics and Associated Tests

Managing Soils for a Sustainable Site

Soil Replacement and Specialized Soils

The Soil Management Plan

Chapter 6: Site Design: Materials and Resources

The Lifecycle of Construction Materials and Products

Environmental Impacts of Materials and Products

Human Health Impacts of Materials

Evaluating Environmental and Human Health Impacts of Materials

Site and Regional Assessment for Materials

Resource Efficiency

Low-VOC Materials and Products

Materials to Minimize Heat Island Impacts

Concrete

Aggregates and Stone

Asphalt

Brick Masonry

Earthen Materials

Plastics

Metals

Bio-Based Materials

Wood

Site Lighting

Chapter 7: Human Health and Well-Being for Sustainable Sites

Assessing the Site’s Social Setting

SUSTAINABILITY AWARENESS AND EDUCATION

Social Equality in Site Development, Construction, and Use

Site Accessibility

Site Wayfinding

Site Safety

Design for Physical Activity

Restorative Settings

Design for Social Interaction and Community Building

Preserving Historic and Cultural Features

Chapter 8: Operations, Maintenance, Monitoring, and Stewardship

Environmental and Human Health Impacts of Sustainable Site Operations, Maintenance, and Monitoring

Incorporating Operations, Maintenance, and Monitoring Considerations into Site Design

Monitoring to Inform Active and Adaptive Stewardship

Resources

Index

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Foreword

The emergence of the Sustainable Sites Initiative Program (SITES) and what it says about the ecological awakening that has taken place over the last twenty-five years are quite encouraging. SITES addresses the urgent need for a coordinated response among landscape design professionals to take on the environmental imperatives of the twenty-first century. The information, methods, and approaches contained in TheSustainable Sites Handbook, an essential companion to realizing the goals of SITES, offer guidance for beginning and established practitioners alike. It has the potential to have a profound effect on how the built landscapes of our time are designed, constructed, and managed, and how they perform within their larger environmental and ecological context.

Ecology and landscape architecture are inseparable, as is demonstrated by the broad range of specialists consulted in the development of SITES and the Handbook. In fact, these were precisely the types of concerned and far-sighted professionals who laid the philosophical groundwork for sustainable site design in the last century. In the 1930s, for instance, naturalist Aldo Leopold stirred the Western world’s consciousness of nature’s complex and interrelated systems. Two decades later, Rachel Carson, an ecologist and scientist, warned us about the dangers of destabilizing natural systems, pointing to both environmental havoc and the potential for associated human tragedy. By the late 1960s, thanks in large part to both Ian McHarg and Carl Steinitz, landscape architects were awakened to a methodology for regional and local planning that firmly placed ecology at its center.

The urgency of environmental stewardship is not in question, and the fact that landscape architects can and will play a leadership role in the drive to create a more sustainable exchange between humans and our environment is clear. Our profession knows that nature will not simply reestablish or mend itself in many of the critically disturbed systems on which we all now work. Up until now, the question of how landscape architects might intelligently and effectively transform our practice to meet current challenges has been loosely defined on an individual basis. The Handbook has the potential to help a great deal: It consolidates a body of knowledge about environmentally positive design approaches and frames it as a response to the challenges of contemporary practice, where ideals and on-the-ground performance must be reconciled.

With the SITES standards, landscape architects—and indeed all site designers—have a framework for sustainable site design defined by acknowledged experts in their respective specialties and a means of bringing recognition to clients who dedicate themselves to building sustainably. The Sustainable Sites Handbook is an important first step in trying to define what sustainability means with respect to the multitude of social, environmental, economic, and experiential concerns that impact everything we design and build. The future is very much about taking on the promise these guidelines offer and raising them to a higher and more defensible level, in terms of both the science and the economics of how these endeavors improve public health. I look forward to future editions of this book that demonstrate that our field is growing based on new research, postoccupancy monitoring, and further innovation.

Michael Van Valkenburgh

Letter from SITES™ Partners

While the greening of the built environment has been widely embraced, a key element has largely been missing: robust standards to guide the creation of sustainable landscapes, with and without buildings. Traditionally, designed landscapes have been major consumers of scarce resources, but—unlike buildings—when done correctly, can improve and regenerate natural systems. Yet until now, no “green” design and construction standards existed for large campuses, public parks, conservation areas, private resorts, recreation areas, or transportation and utility corridors.

This significant challenge spurred the formation of the Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™), an interdisciplinary partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the United States Botanic Garden, which has developed voluntary guidelines and a rating system for landscape sustainability. In developing the guidelines, SITES tapped the expertise of a diverse group of stakeholder organizations and more than 70 nationally respected authorities on soil, hydrology, materials, vegetation, and the impact of the environment on human health and well-being. Their collective expertise guided a rigorous science- and research-based process to produce the Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009.

In the Sustainable Sites Handbook, editor Meg Calkins, ASLA, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., have created a comprehensive resource for all those who seek to create sustainable landscapes and especially those who hope to attain certification under the SITES Rating System™. Incorporating the work of many of the SITES experts, TheSustainable Sites Handbook is a valuable companion document to the SITES Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks and has been carefully reviewed for technical accuracy and adherence to SITES prerequisites and credits.

Use of these design approaches will provide tangible benefits to our cities and communities, including cleaner air and water, climate regulation, conservation of energy and other natural resources, and protection of biodiversity. We hope SITES and the Sustainable Sites Handbook will encourage all those who teach and practice landscape design, construction, and maintenance to adopt sustainable best practices and create sustainable landscapes.

Nancy C. Somerville, Hon. ASLA, Executive Vice President/CEO

American Society of Landscape Architects

Susan Rieff, Executive Director

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin

Holly Shimizu, Executive Director

United States Botanic Garden

Acknowledgments

Just like a sustainable project requires collaboration among many disciplines to create complex, living systems, the richness of this book results from the efforts of many dedicated professionals who each bring an important perspective to the work.

Chapter Authors, most of whom were technical advisors to development of the SITES Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks, generously shared their expertise by creating rich content for each chapter. Each chapter was thoughtfully reviewed by the experts listed below who gave freely of their time and expertise with many insightful comments. Heather Venhaus, in particular, offered invaluable input over the many phases of book development.

Perhaps the largest group I must acknowledge are the varied professionals listed below who originally developed the SITES Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks. They contributed immeasurably to this book by identifying the broad reach of design and management considerations for sustainable sites and by creating the SITES Guidelines—an extremely important tool for twenty-first century site development.

I would also like to thank the SITES partners: The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, The American Society of Landscape Architects and the US Botanic Garden for their support of this book. Thank you to Margaret Cummins, Senior Editor at Wiley for supporting this project from the initial idea to its completion.

Many professional design firms generously contributed images of their work to this book. I thank them for this and more importantly, for the wonderful work they are doing to design, build and manage sustainable sites that will serve as fine examples and offer many lessons for sustainable site projects to come. Many of the projects depicted in the photos are SITES case studies or pilot projects.

Jody Rosenblatt Naderi, John Motloch, and Martha Hunt, my colleagues at Ball State University, offered me support and guidance during the process of developing and editing this book. I would also like to thank graduate student Ryan Smith for his research assistance (and persistence) with obtaining images and permissions, and the many students in my Sustainable Site Design seminar who contributed insight and in a few cases, research to the book.

Lastly, I owe a huge thank you to my family and friends for their support over the duration of this book’s development. My husband, George Elvin, was immeasurably helpful with encouragement and feedback on book ideas AND he also willingly took up the parenting slack over and over during the many long deadlines. My parents, sister, and friends provided a supportive structure for my children as well, allowing me time and space to devote to the creation of this book.

Chapter reviewers:

Heather Venhaus

Nina Bassuk

Steve Benz

Larry Costello

George Elvin

Martha Hunt

Alison Kinn Bennett

John Motloch

Jerry Smith

Laura Solano

Alfred Vick

Ken Willis

David Yocca

SITES Technical Experts:

José Almiñana

Michael Barrett

Nina Bassuk

Amy Belaire

Jacob Blue

Meg Calkins

Michael Clar

Kimberly Cochran

Scott Cloutier

Fred Cowett

Susan D. Day

Richard J. Dolesh

Deon Glaser

Nora Goldstein

Robert Goo

Deb Guenther

Liz Guthrie

Len Hopper

William Hunt

Karen C. Kabbes

Alison Kinn Bennett

Nick Kuhn

Frances (Ming) Kuo

Tom Liptan

Ed MacMullan

Chris Martin

David McDonald

Ray Mims

Karen R. Nikolai

James Patchett

Danielle Pieranunzi

Kristin Raab

Robert Ryan

Jean Schwab

Melanie Sifton

Mark Simmons

Jerry Smith

Laura Solano

Fritz Steiner

Eric Strecker

John C. Swallow

Rodney Swink

Janice E. Thies

John Peter Thompson

Megan Turnock

Valerie Vartanian

Heather Venhaus

Lynne M. Westphal

Julie Wilbert

Steve Windhager

Kathleen L. Wolf

David J. Yocca

Chapter 1

Introduction

Meg Calkins

The natural environment is comprised of complex, interrelated systems of water, soil, air, atmosphere, flora, and fauna that are constantly evolving, balancing, changing, and rebalancing. These ecosystems offer services such as air and water cleansing, water supply and regulation, and productive soil that sustain and enhance human systems—services that are critical to survival of all species. Designed sites can protect, sustain, and even provide these critical ecosystem services. Offering potential to serve multiple functions, sites can be productive, provide ecosystem services, and offer rich aesthetic experiences to the site occupants.

This idea of ecosystem services as a basis for design is a profound shift in the way that we think about the role of designed sites. If we are to design and manage sites that support and engage natural processes, we need to shift our focus from creating and maintaining static, isolated landscapes to that of designing and managing complex, interrelated living systems of the built environment. And as a model for designing site systems that can ensure sustainable development, we need look no further than the principles inherent in our planet’s ecosystems, principles that include zero waste, adaptation, and resiliency.

If we are to protect the world’s ecosystems for future generations, the human-made environment must foster the health of both ecological and human systems. Design of the built environment, including site design, plays a critical role in this. In 2000, the United Nations commissioned the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a global study by 1,360 scientists from an international consortium of governments, universities, nonprofits, and businesses. The 2005 concluding report stated that “human activity is having a significant and escalating impact on the biodiversity of world ecosystems, reducing both their resilience and biocapacity” (MEA 2005). The report, referring to natural systems as humanity’s “life support system,” established that “ecosystems are critical to human well-being—to our health, our prosperity, our security, and to our social and cultural identity” and unless we change the way that we develop land, use resources, and produce food, these services will be seriously compromised for future generations. The report warns: “At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning. Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted” (MEA 2005).

In response to this imperative, the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the United States Botanic Garden, have released Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks to guide development of sustainable sites through a voluntary credit rating system. These guidelines and benchmarks encourage the protection, restoration, and provision of ecosystem services as a basis for sustainable site design. They address the design and management of systems of vegetation, soils, water, materials, energy, and culture.

This book has been created to offer comprehensive and detailed information on strategies, technologies, tools, and best practices for sustainable site design. This book, like the SITES Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks, is based on the premise that any site in any location can be designed and managed to foster healthy ecosystems, and promote ecosystem services and sustainable human systems. It is intended to assist practitioners with successful implementation of the SITES rating tool, and it will also stand as a resource guide for the design and management of sustainable sites. This publication, developed with the cooperation of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, will complement the Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks, the prerequisites and credits, and future SITES publications. It will be a companion resource that practitioners can turn to for deeper guidance on the topics of hydrology, vegetation, soils, materials, human health and well-being, and site selection.

Sustainable SITE Design Defined

Sustainable design as defined by SITES is “design, construction, operations and maintenance practices that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (SITES 2009a). This is based on the definition of sustainable development from the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development’s Bruntland Report, Our Common Future (UNWCED, 1987). For site design, this translates to fostering both human and natural ecosystem health, closing material and resource loops, and designing with respect for nutrient and water cycles. Sustainable site design emphasizes design of whole, complex functioning systems; a widened scale of analysis and design consideration; highly site-specific (as opposed to universal) design responses; and continued monitoring, management, and adaption to ensure healthy, functioning systems for the life of the landscape.

Design of sustainable sites involves a fundamental shift in the way that we think about the Earth and its resources. We must shift from the extractive mind-set of viewing the Earth’s resources as abundantly available for human consumption to the understanding that Earth’s resources and ecosystems are the sustainers of life on this planet and must be protected. New development must work toward fostering the health of ecosystems and the services they provide through their protection and restoration. We must forge a new and respectful relationship with natural systems, acknowledging their critical role in our health and the health of the planet.

Triple Bottom Line

Sustainability encompasses not only environmental conservation, but also the ideals of social equity and economic feasibility. This “triple bottom line” is the key to truly sustainable development (). While this book primarily focuses on environmental sustainability, it addresses areas of social and economic sustainability as they relate to environmental issues and sustainable site design. Design of the built environment also has a direct impact on human and cultural systems. Therefore, a chapter is devoted to human health and well-being considerations of site development.