Day 1: Green infrastructure
John Jacob, Karen Walz, and Dean Almy talked about green infrastructure and the role it plays in the Texas Triangle, as well as about how to protect those assets as the region grows. All three agreed that the cities in the Texas Triangle must focus heavily on creating density in order to preserve existing natural resources.
Video will be posted soon.
John Jacob on the Important Role Green Infrastructure Plays in Cities (.pptx, 16.5 MB)
John Jacob of Texas Sea Grant said that green infrastructure plays a vital role in cities. For instance, during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, Buffalo Bayou acted as a floodplain and served its natural function. However, White Oak Bayou, which had been heavily channelized and developed, suffered extensive losses of property and even lives in the floodwaters. Developers along White Oak Bayou had not paid attention to the floodplain, he said. “Green infrastructure is letting nature do its work for us instead of trying to constrain it,” he told the audience. Green infrastructure can also be engineered, as the City of Houston is doing by widening parts of Braes Bayou.
Unfortunately, he said, it is hard to get people to protect the prairie near Houston, because most people perceive it as being featureless. He described the many features and functions of the Katy Prairie, including floodwater retention, and said, “This is, or at least was, a world-class landscape. But this is the burden of flat landscapes.” Only 200 square miles of the Katy Prairie is left, he said, and at current land use densities, that will only hold 700,000 people. However, he said that 700,000 people could easily fit into just 35 square miles. “We need a policy of density first, above everything else,” Jacob said. “The denser it is, the greener it is.” He also said that the Clean Water Act is not working, and that wetlands mitigation is inadequate.
Karen Walz on Green Infrastructure (.ppt, 29.4 MB)
Karen Walz, project manager for Vision North Texas, agreed with Jacob, saying, “The biggest threat to our green infrastructure is how we handle the growth that has come to our region.” She said that the North Central Texas Council of Governments developed an integrated stormwater management system several years ago to combat erosion and flooding. The plan looks downstream, she said, and combines stormwater with other community concerns.
She also noted the Trinity Forest near Dallas, the largest hardwood urban forest in the United States. She said that it reduces runoff, erosion, and flooding, helps to offset the urban heat island effect, and improves air quality. And the City of Irving, she added, planted about 650 street trees over one square mile, producing $74,000 in benefits annually. Both Dallas and Fort Worth have used the Trinity River to benefit local communities, and the Katy Trail in Dallas is extremely popular despite the summertime heat, she said. But despite these positive developments, no regional “greenprint” exists to address green infrastructure in a coordinated fashion. The Texas Triangle must create a regional greenprint plan from the bottom up, she said, and at the same time it must change existing development patterns and share programs and best practices.
Dean Almy, Director of the Graduate Programs in Urban Design and Landscape Architecture at UT-Austin, said that historically, development has followed water and geography. The Texas Triangle must think about how to defend those resources, he said. Even Austin needs a fairly significant increase in density to avoid significant damage to the surrounding landscape, he said. This does not mean European-style density, necessarily – the Netherlands has set a goal of 40 people per acre, whereas Austin has set a goal of six people per acre – but significant changes must be made.