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In five SlideShares, Restoring the Pulsepresents two goals for stormwater Integrated Planning in Euclid, Ohio:
• Revive the natural regulation of stormwater at relatively low cost and high community benefit.
• Reconnect fragmented natural habitat areas as a means to build local biodiversity and natural capital.
Restoring the PulseBuilding Greenways
Plain
Escarpment
EG types
CSO
Terrace
Eco-Greenways help consolidate lost ecological function in diminished urban watersheds.
Greenways are defined upon ghost water features as they lie on current or emergent greenspace. Greenways link ghost features with each other and with nearby new bioinfiltrationinstallations.
The beauty is that greenways regroup bioinfiltration features, old and new.
Greenways are new channels that generally cut across abandoned stream courses.
Eco-Greenways regroup fragmented natural features and habitats through bioinfiltration. In linking habitat islands we can increase natural capital as an asset for the future.
To review the ecological argument ...
Euclid Stormwater Integrated Plan
bluff
plain
terrace
bioswale
CSO catchment
surface stream
buried stream
storm sewer
escarpment ravine
Restoring the PulseBuilding Greenways
Plain
Escarpment
EG types
CSO
Terrace
Euclid Eco-GreenwaysLink isolated infiltration features
Eco-greenways are based upon ‘natural capital parcels’, properties with current or potential bioinfiltration and linking functions.
The following slides identify the major existing and potential natural capital parcel types:
Escarpment face woodlands
Priority CSO catchments
Public & private green spaces
Priority CSO catchments are Euclid’s first focus for managing stormwater as a resource.
The trouble is that CSO catchments have few ghost water features and they have heavy investment in traditional lawn landscaping.
Nevertheless, CSO catchments must be considered as primary natural capital landscapes. Here, if we can create new means to grow natural capital as well as regulate stormwater, a green model will emerge for the rest of the city.
Along the escarpment face, Euclid possesses a continuous band of dense woodland. While it narrows in a couple of places, the band stretches from Cleveland (west) to Wickliffe (east).
The woodland band exists only in that the escarpment face is too steep for traditional building methods. In recent times, some larger parcels have come to the County Land Bank and the City.
The woodland band is the most ecologically significant landscape in Euclid. We don’t need to ‘green’ it, we must just maintain its integrity.
Together, the City of Euclid and the Euclid School District own hundreds of acres with excellent greenway potential. Most of the larger parks (Memorial, Briardale, Sims and Euclid) lie on the lake plain.
On the terrace, commercial interests hold scores of acres with very good greenway potential. The terrace greenspace holds several segments of surface streams and may ghost surface areas of buried streams.
Greenways do not demand public access, private holdings are entirely appropriate for bioinfiltrationfunctions.
With basic natural capital parcels in place, we turn to the ghost water features. These are the particular places at which bioinfiltration can be quickly improved.
Ghost features are identified on three criteria:
--inward draining basin
--location upon a buried stream course
--within or near a natural capital parcel
Defining Greenways
Ghost water features
Preliminary fieldwork has identified nearly 40 ghost features. Dedicated search will bring many more.
The escarpment face woodland greenway is self evident. The black line follows the Escarpment Greenway from border to border. As the streams here are generally open, there are few ghost features.
Escarpment
As they are dispersed across the city, the priority CSO catchments have little inherent natural linkage.
Nevertheless, CSOs 06, 7/12, 09 and 22 lie close enough together to attempt a greenway (white line). A CSO greenway can enhance community buy-in to the green sub-catchment projects.
TerraceThe St Clair Terrace has many high potential ghost water features. Most could be enhanced for bioinfiltrationwithout compromise to commerce.
The terrace has many acres of the old industrial facility lawns. If these were replanted with native species, Terrace Greenways could achieve a high degree of ecological function.
PlainThe lake plain also has many ghost features. Some are landlocked within residential neighborhoods. Still, these are ripe for bioinfiltrationenhancement by individual owners or neighborhood associations.
As such the Plain Greenways have great potential to build community interest and benefits in residential areas.
To review, eco-greenways are based on finding lost ecological features in new green contexts. BG’s thus search for ghost water features in re-emergent natural capital parcels.
Once established, eco-greenways can serve to focus the placement of new green stormwater installations. Some new facilities can be built on the ghost features, others can use the larger greenway as a location focus.
In sum, the greenway goal is to find the best places to expand and link ecological function in Euclid’s reemerging green places.
Restoring the PulseBuilding Greenways
Plain
Escarpment
EG types
CSO
Terrace
Salt
Ru
n
Fris
sell
Ru
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Google Earth aerial viewer
Connecting beyond …Euclid eco-greenways can probably help improve the Eastside Greenway plan.