Biophilic Cities Conference - New Ideas for Stroubles

On October 18, I had the opportunity to attend the first Biophilic Cities Conference, hosted by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The conference featured speakers from all over the world to speak about their cities, how they are biophilic, and any plans or management practices they have been using to maintain a biophilic environment.

For those of you that don't know, the term biophilia refers to "the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms. Innate means hereditary and hence part of ultimate human nature.” (Wilson, 1993, p.31). Biophilic cities are cities that incorporate an abundance of nature throughout their cities. They are concerned with protecting nature, restoring nature in an urban setting, and connecting humans with that nature. This typically involves biophilic designs, such as green infrastructure like rain gardens, green roofs, urban forestry, etc. It also involves community involvement and stewardship to maintain and increase the natural habitat within the city.


There were several speakers, but one in particular stood out to me. Amber Bill was a speaker from Wellington, New Zealand, where she is the Programme Manager for Our Living City. Ms. Bill presented on the biodiversity of Wellington and the many great projects they have to connect the urban and natural environments. The reason why I was so drawn to her presentation, however, was because Wellington has several underground streams, similar to Stroubles Creek.

Currently, Virginia Tech's Master Plan* includes a project to daylight  (uncovering the stream) one, small portion of Stroubles Creek, but I think it is unlikely that the rest will be daylighted because the stream flows under historic Downtown Blacksburg, College Ave. (which was recently renovated), the Drillfield, and Newman Library. Because of this, I have been very interested in seeing how other cities approach their underground streams, especially alternatives to daylighting.

Wellington has had to take an alternative approach because the underground streams are too deep to daylight. As part of Wellington's initiative to educate their citizens on stormwater runoff and dumping that pollutes the underground streams, a sculpture was created above one of the culverts that pipes the water to the Wellington Harbour. The sculpture can be seen in the photo below, along with the link to a news article about it.
 

Brick Sculpture News Article LINK

As you can see in the photo, there are blue swirls on the ground directly above where the water flows below the surface. There is also an information board that provides information about the stream to visitors. When I spoke to Ms. Bill, I asked her if this was the only sculpture of its kind in the city, or did they have a wayfinding system of blue swirls representing underground streams throughout the city (I believe she said they had about 8 underground streams). Currently, the sculpture above is the only one in the city, but Ms. Bill said that the city hopes to have some sort of system implemented throughout Wellington that draws attention to the water below.

This got me thinking about Stroubles Creek. Currently, there are small signs on storm drains that say something like "No Dumping. Flows into Stroubles Creek." However, these are not very noticeable. In the past few weeks, I have been talking to students and faculty around campus, and many of them didn't realize that Stroubles Creek ran under campus or Blacksburg, or some of them knew, but they didn't know where the stream was located. If residents here aren't noticing the signage on the storm drains, are they actually effective? Are we really creating awareness for stormwater management and water quality of Stroubles Creek, which is already impaired? It doesn't really seem like it to me.

I know in the past students have proposed daylighting ideas to Blacksburg and VT, and daylighting has yet to happen. I don't want to present a redundant idea that likely won't happen. I want to present an idea that has the potential to be implemented and make a difference, so this will be the goal for my Master's Project for my Natural Resources degree. Creating a wayfinding system, as an alternative to daylighting Stroubles Creek, that allows residents to actually see where Stroubles Creek is flowing beneath them.

I will be working on an interactive map of Blacksburg and the VT campus that will allow users to hover over the map and see where the stream is located underground. I will also be researching different wayfinding techniques for representing underground streams. Ideally, my goal would be to have something similar to the blue swirls along the streets and sidewalks where Stroubles Creek is flowing. This may not be possible, but I will provide the Town and VT with some options based on my research. Hopefully this will increase the awareness in the Blacksburg and VT communities of where Stroubles Creek is located, how impaired the stream is, and what they can do to reduce stormwater runoff and ultimately the pollutants entering the stream.



*When looking at the Master Plan, if you choose the "Click here to print the master plan option," it will provide you with a PDF version of the plan. The PDF is much easier to navigate than the interactive plan on the website.  The stormwater section of the plan includes information about daylighting Stroubles Creek, which begins on page 38 of the PDF.

Wilson, E. O. (1993). Biophilia and the Conservation Ethic. In Kellert S. a Wilson E.O. (eds.): The 
     Biophilia Hypothesis. Shearwater Books, Washington, D.C., pp/ 31-40.