The NYC Soil and Water Conservation District hosted a green infrastructure bus tour to Philly again this year. I tagged along for the wonky stormwater control measurement (SCM) fun. Once we arrived at Villanova University we were treated to a quick series of presentations to prime us fr what we where about to see. The first presentation was in overview of Villanova’s Environmental Engineering Department and SCM techniques presented by Dr. Robert Traver.
The next presenter was Dr. Bridget Wadzuk, who talked about Evapotranspiration in SCMS
The third presentation addressed the Mitigation of High Temperature Inflows from collected stormwater, which was quite a revelation to me personally. The researcher on this topic was Dr. Andrea Welker.
The final presentation before we went walking about campus to visit the study sites was one on Nutrient and Metal Removal in Bioinfiltration by John Kolmos.
After these presentations we stretched our legs with a walk about campus. Our first stop was the Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership (VUSP) greenroof study.
Here are two rain gardens in front of Fedigan Hall. One is lined with EPDM and has a drain pipe measuring the outfall and the other allows natural infiltration into the substrate below.
A little info about porous pavers used in and around campus
Some discussion about heat and hydraulic connectivity.
A stormwater treatment train collecting water from a quarter of an adjacent parking garage.
The bioswale portion of the treatment train, also seen in the first image of this post.
The rain garden and infiltration trench at the end of the treatment train.
An infiltration are on the other side of the parking garage.
A faculty parking lot area comparing porous concrete to a porous asphalt application.
The Villanova bio-infiltration demonstration area.
Unfortunately the batteries in my flip cam where exhausted by the end of the tour and I didn’t get to record the constructed wetland piece which we visited last. I can tell you that it is the oldest component of green infrastructure on campus, originally a retention basin, it drains about 45 acres on and around the Villanova campus. They had a problem with invasive fragmites which they removed and replanted with natives. They also had to provide more variety in water depth and planting tables in order to alleviate that invasive plant problem. Geese have also been an issue but they expect this to become less of a problem as the vegetation grows in and disrupts their preferred flight path and approach to the site. Deer have also been a nuisance and have slowed the growth of most of the woody perennial plant material. As you can tell I latched onto the flora and fauna details where many of the more technical aspects escaped me.
It was a nice day in Philly and all my thanks to the organizers at NYC Soil and Water Conservation District as well as the hosts at Villanova School of Environmental and Civil Engineering, plus everyone else in attendance who made the whole trip (even the “back-up plan” on the bus ride back home) fun and enjoyable.
Verdant Cities 