[CANUFNET] Water and the Growing Urban Canopy

[netami.stuart at utoronto.ca]

Most of the large institutional landscapes that PMA Landscape  
Architects has designed or administered in recent years have included  
rainwater collection and use for irrigation. There are different  
solutions for different sites. For example: Toronto Botanical Garden  
has a rainwater cistern and a weather sensor that regulates water use  
(as well as a green roof and infiltration trenches in all the paved  
areas); the new Vaughan Civic Centre also will have a cistern and will  
use water pumped from the sump in the underground parking, William  
Osler Health Centre in Brampton uses the stormwater pond for  
irrigation.  We try to find innovative, low-maintenance, low-tech ways  
of turning off the tap and keeping rainwater where it belongs in the  
ground.

Once an institution/commercial development has decided to spend money  
on irrigation, saving water in their irrigation system is the  
interesting part.

Netami Stuart
P M A LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTS
224 Wallace Ave, #321, Toronto, ON, M6H 1V7
t: 416-239-9818	f: 416-239-1310    e: netami at pmalarch.ca
www.pmalarch.ca


Quoting Mark Peterson <mpa at golden.net>:

> What an interesting idea. Water is so critical during the first growing
> season. The logistical problems do not seem to be that difficult on the
> surface; it does need some thinking about. Has anyone tried this at a
> large scale?
>
> How is the NGO Riversides project dealing with the industrial and
> institutional, commercial aspects of this idea J.P. Warren?
>
> Mark Peterson, BES, MLArch, OALA
> Mark Peterson & Associates, Landscape Architect
> (519)743-2990        www.openspacesolutions.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jp Warren" <jpwarren at interlog.com>
> To: <canufnet at list.web.net>
> Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 4:15 PM
> Subject: [CANUFNET] Water and the Growing Urban Canopy
>
>
> Toronto is set to double the size of its canopy. Ottawa's announcement
> of 100,000 trees planted over the next four years as part of the
> National Tree Planting Challenge, and the UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign
> are important and exciting initiatives.
>
> In order to water these trees while not increasing the fossil fuels
> burned to operate municipal pumps (pumps consuming a very high amount
> (50 to 60%) of typical municipal energy requirements) programs such as
> the NGO Riversides is initiating, the harvesting of rainwater using
> rainbarrels at the homeowner level and larger systems for commercial,
> industrial, institutional and multi-unit residential, means cities
> will be able to supply the growing urban forest with water collected
> freely, and equally importantly for local watersheds, diverted from
> storm, sanitary, and river systems in our communities.
>
> This rain harvesting approach provides leverage to both sides of the
> energy equation; It helps mitigate through reducing our need for pump
> energy, and provides for adaptation, by helping us prepare for warmer,
> drier times ahead. Also, by capturing and making available a supply
> normally diverted to become waste, it both 'creates' supply and also
> lessens demand on the municipal potable system currently used to water
> our cities growing trees.
>
> If we're going to grow urban forests in the hot dry environs of our
> cities, we can use every drop of help we can get. And as our urban
> infrastructures age and need to be replaced, on-site rainwater
> harvesting can provide a way to lighten this need as well. The new
> forests will require lots of water, and right now we toss the bulk of
> it down the drain.
>
> See www.riversides.org
>
> Cheers,     John-Paul Warren
>
>
> Jp Warren
> 416-467-1339
> Toronto