Holistic Wet Weather Management through Adaptive Volume and Pollutant Source Control at a Community Scale: Finding the Sweet Spot

Utilities, municipalities, and counties are at a crossroads; not only must they face external stressors due to climate change (e.g. extreme events with increasing frequency and intensity), but they must also address aging infrastructure, population shifts (densification and shrinking cities), and additional pressure on networks already over-capacity. Adaptive management strategies for improving water management policies and practice based on past experiences is needed to appropriately account for such uncertainty.

Green Stormwater Infrastructure in Redevelopment in Philadelphia

This research project aims to evaluate the role that GSI has in the redevelopment approval process (and subsequently, PWD’s role), and how the approval process can be better streamlined to allow for GSI integrations in the early stages of redevelopment project planning. Our output will be a detailed and illustrative white paper that will feature an infographic detailing and explaining the process to be used for advocacy and evaluating aspects that may be convoluted or redundant, as well as what might be missing.

Philadelphia: Urban Ecology and the Balance of Human and Ecological Communities

Oftentimes ecologists struggle to balance the needs of ecological communities (plants, wildlife, water, soil, air) and human communities (humans and their constructed environments) without recognizing the critical role of humans in the current landscape. Simultaneously, human communities often divorce themselves from nature and do not recognize the interconnectedness that exists even in urban areas.