Sustainable Water Resource Engineering, CAEE Professor Dr. Franco Montalto, P.E. was a trainer at World Water Assessment Program (WWAP) in Venice, Italy.
10 Jul 2016

Professor Montalto’s Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Class in Venice

New York City Urban Field Station Science of the Living City Seminar

From June 8-18, 2016, CAEE Professor Dr. Franco Montalto, P.E. brought a group of 13 student to Venice, Italy as part of his Sustainable Water Resource Engineering class.

The theme of this year's class was Water and Jobs, the name also given to the 2016 World Water Development Report produced by World Water Assessment Program (WWAP). Since it is estimated that 3 out of 4 global jobs are water dependent, new approaches to water management can help to foster new forms of sustainable development. The group explored this theme with a focus on historical and contemporary water management strategies in Venice, a city of water.

After an introductory presentation by Dr. Angela Ortigara from WWAP, the trip began with a tour of the controversial Venice MOSE storm surge barrier project, followed immediately by technical presentations by some of its most vocal local critics.

The students then joined researchers from the University of Padua who are exploring strategies for engaging unemployed fisherman, refugees, and others in wetland restoration and river corridor restoration projects as part of the EU’s LIFE Vimine Project. The Drexel students collected water quality samples at the inlet and outlet of a tidal wetland in the Northern Venice lagoon in an effort to quantify its potential for improving water quality.

Other excursions included to Lazzaretto Nuovo, the city’s historical quarantine, to traditional fish farms in the Po Delta region, and to one of the region’s most historical flood control districts il Consorzio di Bonifica Delta Po Adige.

The project capstone was independent research conducted by the Drexel team on how various nature-based water management strategies could be incorporated into regional climate change adaptation planning in and around Venice. This work was presented to students and researchers at the IUAV University in Venice, an institution with which Drexel has an Erasmus + agreement to promote academic exchange on climate proofing cities. Water Resource Engineering

Dr. Franco Montalto, eDesign Dynamics, Science of the Living City, Seminar, Green Infrastructure, Green Engineering, NYC Urban Field Station, the Arsenal, Enhancing the Resilience of Urban Landscapes
13 May 2016

“Science of the Living City” Seminar for Green Infrastructure

New York City Urban Field Station Science of the Living City Seminar

Dr. Franco Montalto, President and Principal Engineer at eDesign Dynamics, was recently featured for the NYC Urban Field Station. Dr. Montalto spoke at the Arsenal for the "Science of the Living City" seminar series. 

"Reducing Water Pollution in a Dynamic World: The Critical Role of Green Infrastructure Investments in Enhancing the Resilience of Urban Landscapes" explored the potential role that multifunctional green infrastructure (GI) systems may be able to play in promoting urban resilience.

In the U.S. context, green infrastructure is primarily funded as a stormwater reduction measure. For this reason it must provide the service reliably, at a minimum. Research confirms that green infrastructure systems can reduce runoff at the site, block, and watershed scale, but much less is known about the other services these systems may provide in urban ecosystems, when they are strategically conceived, sited, and designed.

Because (GI) programs are typically being implemented in the context of adaptive management, the opportunity for practitioners, researchers, regulators, and community leaders to work together to pilot, monitor, and verify new green infrastructure configurations is upon us. Doing so requires flexibility, creativity, and the institutional willingness to attempt new things.

The New York City Urban Field Station “Science of the Living City” programs encompass all our educational efforts, affiliated partners, and special events.  Affiliates include scholars-in-residence, fellows, and interns. Events include seminars, brownbag lectures, workshops, and symposia.

Science of the Living City engages diverse partners across the city, speaks to a wide professional and public audience, and addresses a variety of pressing issues related to urban social ecology and quality of life in cities. The goal is to explore new knowledge and the applications and implications of this knowledge in the urban context as well as to expand overall environmental literacy.

See more about the Field Station, and their seminar series HERE >

 

eDesign Dynamics is an environmental engineering and planning firm specializing in Water Resources Modeling, Planning, and Design; Ecosystem Design and Analysis; Green Stormwater Infrastructure; International Development; and Resilience Planning and Design. Ecosystem Services. Water Resources.
8 Mar 2016

ASLA New York 2016 Design Award Winners

Siteworks, the Trust for Public Land and eDesign Dynamics, wins ASLA New York 2016 Design Award

ASLA New York 2016 Design Award won by Siteworks, the Trust for Public Land and eDesign Dynamics for green playground design!

eDesign Dynamics is honored to have worked on such a tremendous project, transforming an asphalt lot to a state-of-the-art playground for NYC's Hells Kitchen community. The school, in an area almost devoid of parks, serves 600 kids, pre-K through 8th grade.  Designed with help from the school's students and built in partnership with New York City, the one-acre playground will include green infrastructure components that will allow the space to capture up to 700,000 gallons of stormwater runoff each year.

Congratulations to Siteworks, the Trust of Public Land and the P.S. 111 student consultants! 

See the full list of winning projects HERE >

Read more about our playground project HERE>

Photo credit: dnainfo.com

On February 27th, an interdisciplinary jury comprised of landscape architects and allied professionals from the Southern California Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) convened to select winners of the 2016 ASLA New York Chapter Design Awards. Of the 55 award submissions, 18 projects received “Honor” or “Merit” designations. The awards will be presented at the ASLA-NY Design Awards Ceremony and Reception to be held on Thursday, April 7th, at the Center for Architecture in Manhattan.

 

The projects chosen represent excellence in professional accomplishment by ASLA New York members in five categories: General Design, Residential Design, Collaborative Design, Analysis/Planning/Research and Communications, and Un-Built Projects. This year’s jury responded favorably to the interesting collection of valuable ideas and research-based design solutions presented by award winners.  ASLA-NY 2016 President Celine Armstrong notes, that “the body of work represented by this year’s award recipients is very inspiring as these projects will bring joy to those visiting these landscapes and awareness to our profession. I am thankful to the landscape architects who continue to work tirelessly creating such beautiful works of art.”

 

- See more at: http://aslany.org/7152-2/?cbg_tz=300#sthash.RWJoenwR.dpuf
24 Apr 2015

ROOFS ARE SPROUTING GREENERY

Dr. Montalto was recently quoted in an article on Philly.com about Philadelphia’s increasing population of green roofs and their many benefits and possibilities.

Across the city, the tops of buildings and parking lots are sprouting greenery like never before. The number of green roofs in Philadelphia has tripled since 2010, according to the Water Department, which tracks the roofs because they absorb storm-water runoff.

The city now has 111 green roofs, roughly 25 acres’ worth. An additional 64 roofs are in the queue. The completed ones range from a tiny poof of greenery atop a bus stop shelter - installed at 15th and Market Streets as an attention-getter in 2011 - to one of the latest and biggest, one-acre-plus of greenery at Cira Centre South in University City.

…

The region’s universities have not only been installing roofs, but also avidly studying them.

Among questions Drexel associate engineering professor Franco Montalto and his colleagues are pondering: Can we grow food crops, use native species (instead of desert-adapted sedum species), or create more biodiversity on green roofs in the urban Northeast? How differently do green roofs constructed on steeply sloped roofs perform? Can we adjust the design of the green roof to maximize its habitat value, such as attracting pollinators?

Read the full article at philly.com HERE >

Photo credit: DAVID SWANSON
1 Mar 2015

LESSONS ON POST-RESILIENCE

Writing from Venice, Italy, Dr. Montalto was recently featured on The Nature of Cities. He spoke on coastal resiliency, from his own experience, living in this city where dealing with flood waters (acqua alta) is a fact of life.

Walking through the flooded streets is another interesting experience. Everyone slows down—tremendously. It wasn’t initially clear to me why this was happening. Without cars, there’s always a lot of ground to cover in this city, and the average Venetian typically moves at a healthy gait. Feeling confident in my new stivali, I continued to move at this pace only to find out within a few minutes that I was suffering death by a thousand drops. It seems that each fast step kicks a few drops into the top of your boot. You don’t feel those individual drops, but keep it up and in a few minutes, your socks are soaked. I slowed down, realizing that alas, pazienza, everyone around me was used to this. When there’s acqua alta, it’s OK to be late, or to change the plan, or to cancel appointments. (Though, ironically, not for first graders. My daughter’s new teacher was careful to tell me that acqua alta is not an excuse to be late for school.) Venetians have adapted to contemporary acqua alta the way they adapted to life in a foggy lagoon over a thousand years ago. Life goes on despite it.

Read the full article in The Nature of Cities HERE >
1 Jan 2015

INTERVIEW WITH URBAN OMNIBUS

Eric Rothstein was profiled in Urban Omnibus in January 2015 in an article entitled “Mitigate, Design, Restore: A Conversation on Hydrology and Habitat.”

In the interview, Mr. Rothstein discusses how he chose his line of work, some of eDesign Dynamics projects and collaborations in NYC, and the benefits - and challenges - of green infrastructure and habitat restoration.

Read an excerpt from the interview below:

How does restoration in an urban area like New York City differ from elsewhere?

Traditional restoration work is often led by ecologists and biologists because they know what they need to create. But in the urban, post-industrial setting, the foundations of ecosystems are basically screwed up. These soils are high in nutrients and pH because of all the concrete, so they favor weedy species instead of our native species, which thrive in lower nutrient and more acidic soils. Then there is the poor water quality of the runoff, which includes oil, metals, and various other contaminants. Aligned with that is the issue of “flashy” hydrology: we get much more runoff and we get it a lot faster. So before you can establish a sustainable ecosystem, you need to fix the soils, the hydrologic regime, and the water quality.

Do you have any particular hopes for further integration of ecological ideas into urban development?

To be truly green would be to design everything so that on balance it has a net positive effect on the planet. It’s really hard to offset the negative impact of a building, because of all the materials brought in and the pollution caused by construction and people living there. Most people say that the next best step is to do everything that’s feasible within the budget to have as little an impact as possible. I still struggle with the building scale. With park development, however, you’re taking something with no habitat value and creating both that value and an amenity for the community.

 The full article can be found HERE >

 
1 Dec 2014

ALLEY POND PARK IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

The New York Times recently featured an article on Dr. Franco Montalto’s work in monitoring the ecology of Alley Pond Park and its recent inclusion in the US Forest Services Smart Forest program. The data being collected is part of his efforts in cooperation with the NYC Parks Department for city-wide monitoring of NYC Greenstreets and green stormwater infrastructure.

Franco A. Montalto, an associate professor in Drexel’s department of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, said that the availability of affordable digital sensors made it possible for him to gain access to that day’s recordings from Alley Pond Park on his iPad and instantly compare them with data from the two experimental storm-water runoff sites in the city.

But despite the high-tech tools, Dr. Montalto insists on having eyes and ears verify the data. To that end, more than a dozen high school, college and graduate students have periodically trekked to the site at Alley Pond to sift soil through their fingers and take photos.

“To believe the sensors, you need validation,” he said. “Bad data is worse than no data.”

Eventually, scientists working at Alley Pond Park would like local schools to make the research part of their lessons.

Read the full article at the New York Times HERE >
1 Oct 2014

MORE RAIN THAN WE CAN HANDLE

Dr. Franco Montalto was interviewed by reporter Stephen Nessen of WNYC for their recent NYC 2050 series exploring the impact of climate change on New York City and beyond. Mr. Nessen’s report explores the implications of, and possible solutions to increases in the frequency of intense rain storms.

Speaking on the effectiveness of green infrastructure in the context of New York City’s Greenstreets program, Mr. Nessen reports:

According to Franco Montalto, a professor at Drexel University, who works with the city on its Greenstreets project, if placed in the right location, with curb cuts to allow water in, using sturdy plants that can withstand long droughts and long periods of heavy rain, and with add several layers of engineered soil, bioswales can absorb far more than an inch of rain water (which is what the city hopes they can absorb).

At a Greenstreets in Cambria Heights, Queens, Montalto outfitted the plot with sensitive measuring devices. He found during Sandy and Irene, this plot of land absorbed all the rain water that flowed in, more than seven inches, and didn’t dump any of it into the streets or sewers.

See Mr. Nessen's report at WNYC HERE >

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