McGuire, however, thinks that effective GSI needs to be considered from a more wholistic perspective-about reconnecting to the land and retrofitting neighborhoods for water. Rain gardens are sometimes too small or are placed convenient for human activities, but not ideal for drainage. Permeable pavement helps rainwater absorb on-site.īut GSI doesn’t always work as well as it might. The idea of GSI is to increase opportunities for rainfall to be absorbed where it lands, whether into a well-placed rain garden or even onto permeable pavement, instead of running off parking lots, streets and sidewalks and into sewer systems, potentially overwhelming them. Green stormwater infrastructure offers a nature-based way to enhance traditional or “grey” infrastructure.
#Garden story sewer puzzle update#
Many communities in the Calumet region, as well as elsewhere, do not have the financial resources to update their sewer systems, which at best, may still be insufficient. Add to that, long-standing, traditional infrastructure is aging and is frequently in need of repair or upgrading. This flat, low-lying area has historically been particularly prone to flooding. The team focused their efforts in the Calumet region, which encompasses the southeast side of Chicago along with nearby suburbs.
“By the end, we all got the bigger picture-we all learned from the experience.”
#Garden story sewer puzzle professional#
“At the beginning of the process, we had to learn to communicate with each other because we brought different professional languages to the table,” said David Grimley, a Quaternary geologist at the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS). With this range of expertise, and students contributing throughout, the project encompassed research, modeling, design and engagement.
Mary Pat McGuire in the U of I Department of Landscape Architecture led this multidisciplinary research project, adding to her knowledge and skills with those of geologists, water resources engineers, and a community outreach specialist. The research and outreach team set out to incorporate information about local soils as well as other factors in planning and designing GSI sites. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant funded a University of Illinois project to help communities add green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) to their strategies to prevent local flooding. Managing stormwater has become more challenging as urban development increases, storms get bigger and sewer systems can’t keep up.
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