Linking Sustainable Urban Water Systems in the Great Lakes Basin

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

An important feature of this workshop lies in its focus on the Great Lakes Basin. As a brainstorming effort, it is intended to gather together activities underway around the Basin that relate to sustainable urban water systems, to bring fresh perspectives, to spur the development of new solutions, and to build a network of knowledge and perspective sharing that can both advance practice and bring cutting-edge current practice to the classroom. The participant group assembled will include researchers, government and other stakeholder representatives, and practitioners. The long-term goal will be to drive practice forward through scientific, engineering, policy, and design research, all informed by the insights of practice. To do this effectively necessarily means creating linkages that cross technical, jurisdictional, regulatory and cultural boundaries. This also means reaching across disciplinary boundaries to develop a common language and shared set of research objectives. The workshop will take as its illustrative focus the urban land/water interface and the challenges of linking aquatic habitat restoration with green infrastructure. Successfully linking these two systems offers the potential to expand both their efficacy and range of applicability. Together, these systems not only address specific environmental challenges, they create urban ecosystems that foster public health and environmental education. The conferees will include three broad groups, drawn from the Great Lakes Basin and beyond: (1) Academic researchers in freshwater sciences, engineering, public policy, the humanities, urban planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture; (2) Local, state and federal government, utility and other stakeholder representatives; (3) Professional design team members, including designers, engineers, and ecologists. As one facet of urban water systems sustainability, returning native ecologies to urban environments serves a profound human need for association with living systems. Such interventions serve broad social goals by both moving towards sustainability and by creating tangible symbols of that goal. To achieve this objective, discussion at this workshop will test a conceptual model that posits that urban water systems should mimic natural ecological systems in evolving towards ever greater complexities of cascading linkages. If successful, this model is anticipated to apply well beyond water. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.