Planning and Design for Urban Creek Revitalization
Background, Client and Purpose
Scajaquada Creek is a Class C stream under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act due to impairment caused by floatables, elevated oxygen demand, pathogens, and excess nutrient loading. The 17‐mile long Creek is a tributary of the Niagara River in the Great Lakes drainage basin. The Creek drains 29 square miles of portions of Buffalo, two Towns, and two Villages. Land use adjacent to the Creek includes urban and suburban residential development; commercial and former manufacturing (brownfield) sites; colleges, parks and cemeteries (including sites on the National Register of Historic Places); highway infrastructure, and nearly four (4) miles of subterranean channels. The Master Plan developed conceptual designs and significant design elements that could be implemented in five representative functional units: Creek Headwaters; Parks; Historic District; Underground Tunnel; and Creek Mouth.
2012 Master Plan
Interdisciplinary student design teams have worked collaboratively in capstone design classes since 2012 to address the client’s goals: • rehabilitate the Creek by The Buffalo‐Niagara Riverkeeper (our improving delivery of ecosystem client) is a non‐profit organization services; dedicated to environmental and economic development in the Buffalo‐ • promote public interaction with the Creek and its ecosystem; Niagara region. • support economic development The client is actively engaged with efforts aimed to improve the “Blue community stakeholders to develop a Economy;” and
Creek Restoration Strategy to prioritize • improve water quality and habitat actions that will mitigate the in the Creek and downstream environmental problems and restore water bodies. water quality.
Multidisciplinary Collaboration and Professional Engagement
In 2012, a team of five engineering students worked with two teams of landscape architecture students to develop the Master Plan. In 2013, two teams of engineering students worked with four LA design teams to develop preliminary designs for two units described in the Master Plan.
This collaboration has resulted in three student work products: the Master Plan (2012); Design of Creek Restoration through Daylighting a Tunnel (2013); and Design of Creek Restoration in a Town Park (2013).
The Engineering Department’s 3‐
credit hour, one‐semester capstone design course provides a “real‐
world” design experience. In the last two years, the Creek revitalization project has involved:
• 14 engineering students, • 34 Landscape Architecture (LA) students, • 6 environmental science students, • 2 instructors (P.E. and L.A.) • 7 professional engineers and • several planners and architects.
• professionals and faculty from allied professions (planning, landscape architecture, construction management) as advisors, mentors and instructors.
Benefits to Public Health, Safety and Welfare
The design approach follows a philosophy of creating a biophilic city by integrating nature into urban design and planning. The benefits of Creek restoration include • Improved oxygen transfer to mitigate odor problems and improve habitat.
• Reduced health and noxious odor problems by limiting CSO events and pollutant loading
• Physical and mental health benefits from additional recreation. • Reduced urban heat island effect from improved urban forest.
• Improved flood control. • Improved decisionmaking by Creek Advisory Council to define strategies for funding and policy development to effect Creek improvements. As conveyed to the instructors and students from the client’s principal planner: “[The student] designs are building the case for environmental stewardship and by presenting [this] work to the Initiative, we are hoping to gain momentum. Your class is playing a vital role for exploring designs and feasibility of the proposals that will be used to ignite the next steps of the creek restoration.”
Historic
Headwaters
Mouth
Underground
Creek Headwaters: Suburban Residential
• Green infrastructure practices such as bioretention, porous pavement and increased tree plantings to reduce peak discharges and erosion. • Wetland restoration to improve habitat, property values and wildlife viewing. Parks
Parks: Municipal Recreation
• Re‐build trapezoidal cross section to include a narrow‐bottomed pilot channel for low‐flow conditions • Add stream meanders, wetland and in‐situ structures to improve aeration, and filtration. • Improve native vegetation to control erosion control, provide habitat, enhance recreation and property valuation
Underground Creek: 3.7 mile‐long pipe arch built in 1920s. • A significant design challenge. • “Daylight” or remove short reaches of tunnel to improve water quality and public access. • Address public safety due to 20‐foot depth to channel invert
Creek Mouth: Brownfields and elevated highway
• Passive remediation and restoration phytoremediation
• Runoff treatment with sand filters
• Low‐head dam removal to enable fish and recreational boat passage
• Green infrastructure practices sediment transport 2013 Creek Daylighting: Schiller Park
Objective: Daylight a section of the tunnel under Schiller Park. Site Features: • Senior Center, playgrounds, sports fields, a bathhouse, splash pool/pad and walking paths. • Tunnel width varies from 26 to 34 feet, with a 14‐foot crown height. • Average daily flow in the Creek is 31 cfs; the 100‐year design peak flow is approximately 3,300 CFS. Approach: Three (3) zones with various design elements to improve or enhance access, water quality, forest canopy, and recreation
Zone 2
ƒ Braided channel
ƒ Vegetated outer channels
ƒ Pedestrian bridge
ƒ Path and biking trails
ƒ Scenic overlooks
ƒ Islands
ƒ Great earthwork
ƒ Remove concrete lined channel
Knowledge and Skills
With the engagement of professional engineers and allied professions, students: • Dealt with realistic constraints that included economic; environmental; sustainability; constructability; ethical; health; safety; social; and regulatory concerns.
• Strengthened problem‐solving skills by applying models for stream channel hydraulic analysis, flood routing, and stormwater management.
• Performed sustainability analysis, cost estimating, and economic analysis.
• Functioned on an interdisciplinary team Students also:
• Improved communication skills, including listening, oral presentations, and document preparation. • Learned that site visits and talking with people are essential to defining the problem. • Discovered the importance of historical design and “as‐built” documents
• Learned that stakeholders have to be involved, and that allied professions speak a similar language. • Learned that the joint effort enhanced the value of the design product that was submitted to the client.
Historic District: Tourist Destination on National Register of Historic Places
• Reduce erosion and CSOs in the drainage basin, • Provide controlled sedimentation through channel re‐configuration
• Wetland creation • Remove barriers and connect Creek to the Park’s lakes.
2013 Creek Restoration: Cheektowaga Park
Objective: Restore stream function, improve access and water quality. Site Features: • Recreation Center, playgrounds, sports fields, walking paths, municipal buildings, library. • Channel bottom width 30 feet, 2:1 side slopes. Average daily flow 31 cfs; the 100‐year design peak flow 3,300 CFS. Approach: Use NRCS NEH‐654 for stream restoration methods to improve water quality.
Design Elements: • Add 7‐foot wide pilot channel for low‐flow
• Install meanders with in‐stream vanes and weirs and riparian vegetation
• Utilize green gabions and similar materials for bank stabilization
• Provide paths, benches and observation platforms to improve or enhance access
• Use green infrastructure and forest canopy throughout park and neighborhood to reduce volume and improve quality of CSO and MS4 discharges
Zone 3
ƒ Vegetative buffers
ƒ Bioretention areas
ƒ Trapezoidal channel
ƒ Dense urban forest
ƒ Community garden
ƒ Various trail connections
ƒ Slight meander of creek
ƒ Return to optimal hydrologic conditions
Zone 1
ƒ Maintain alignment
ƒ Modify creek side overland retention
ƒ Remodeled fields
ƒ Upgrade bike paths
ƒ Seasonal use ice skating
ƒ Reuse excavated materials for landforming