UBC Sustainable Sites (Agronomy Road Walk)

Hello everyone! Finally we have reached the end of this outstanding project. After weeks of collecting data and evaluating the sites, we have finally reached a verdict on the sustainability of Agricultural Road Walkway.

In this blog post, we will give a brief overview on Criterion 3.5, which was not included in the previous blog as well as summarize the project and its environmental and social impacts.

Here is the evaluation on Criterion 3.5:

3.5 Manage stormwater on site (5-10 points)

• The target water storage has been estimated as 70 (using water storage software Tr-55 curve numbers) for Humid West sections across the states which has similar weather condition of our site.
• Widespread infiltration is not often an option due to contaminated soils and the potential for groundwater contamination, less improvement in water storage capacity is needed to achieve credit.
• 7 points were attained as only 40% of total volume runoff from the previous walkway’s runoff was reduced.

Result: 7 points obtained

Overall, the total credits obtained for Agricultural Road is 22 out of 31 without the credits for criterion 3.3 and 3.4 (those will be evaluated by Sustainable Sites.). The Sustainable Sites Initiative evaluates sites on a 4-star rating system, on which Agricultural Road Walkway obtained 3 Stars (for having at least 60% of the points). This is great news for UBC as it furthers their sustainable structures on the Vancouver Campus.

As City of Vancouver is trying to achieve the goal of making Vancouver the greenest city by 2020, the renewal of Agricultural Road also represents UBC’s commitment to being a leader in sustainability and support the goal of the city.

Impacts

UBC has always been working on sustainable developments. Innovative green building, sustainable water system, uses of green energy and promotions of local food and public transit show UBC’s attitude of leading a sustainable community and providing a healthier and better environment to students and residents. While people are being a part of the sustainable campus, the environment will affect their thoughts and create the sense of sustainability.

The Agricultural Road is a good example of UBC’s green project. The natural bioswale and raingarden stormwater filtering and collecting system save stormwater and runoff for irrigation. Lawn is fertilized by organic waste. The whole process of maintenance just involve reused resources.

Bioswale in rainy days

We learnt a lot more about how to utilize stormwater and maintain a site in a sustainable way during this evaluation project. This valuable experience improved our recognition of sustainability and teamwoking skills. We are grateful for this opportunity to participate in UBC’s green project.

Feel free to contact us at ssi.agrd.walkway@gmail.com for further inquiries.

UBC Agricultural Roadway Group

After one and a half month, the Agricultural Road Walkway sustainablity evaluation project is heading to the finish line.

We are going to present the evaluation results for most of the parts in this blog post.

Agricultural Road was evaluated under the Sustainable Sites Initiative (Water) criteria sections 3.1-3.8 (excluding 3.3 and 3.4). The site received the following points under the criteria:

3.1 (Prerequisite): Reduce potable water use for landscape irrigation by 50 percent from established baselines.

And

3.2 (2-5 Points): Reduce potable water use for landscape irrigation by 75 percent from established baselines.

According to calculations, the designed landscape’s percentage reduction in potable water use from the baseline case is 56.5%.

• Less than 75% potable water use was reduced.
• Satisfied prerequisite 3.1.

3.3 Protect and restore riparian, wetland, and shoreline buffers 

And

3.4 Rehabilitate lost streams, wetlands, and shorelines

The site does not have any wetland or shoreline. The corresponding evaluation will be estimated by officials at the Sustainable Sites with reasonable assumptions. A copy of all plans will be provided for these sections.

3.5 Manage stormwater on site

Due to the technical difficulties, this section of the evaluation will be completed in the following week. The final result including this section will then be presented in next closing blog with the project summary.

3.6 (3-9 Points): Protect and enhance on-site water resources and receiving water quality

• A total of 95 percent of average annual volume of runoff discharged from the developed portion of the site receives stormwater treatment for pollutants of concern. Most of the water is drained into the bioswales where the water is treated and also no water runs into nearby streams.
• The site uses soil- and vegetation-based systems to treat 100 percent of the treated water volume.
• At least 95 percent of the water makes its way into bioswales and gets treated for pollutants.
• No major pollutants affecting site.

3.7 (1-3 Points):Design rainwater/stormwater features to provide a landscape amenity

• 75 percent of rainwater/stormwater features on site are designed as amenities and are visible from high-use portions of the site.

• At least one rainwater/stormwater feature is visible and accessible from sidewalks, and contact is not prohibited. Water elements where limited human contact is allowed must meet local and/or state health requirements. In some situations, this may require additional treatment methods such as ozonation or thermal treatment.

      Result: 2 points obtained

3.8 (1-4 Points): Maintain water Features to Conserve Water and Other Resources

• 3 points for rain garden being filled by sustainable water resources.
• Additional point for water circulation without human intervention (gravity).

      Result: 4 points obtained

So far, Agricultural Road has been evaluated at 15/21, which is quite decent so far. We hope that the score gets even better after submitting the credits for 3.5 and after obtaining the final score from Sustainable Sites.

We plan to complete the project probably on next Tuesday and hand in the final report to client within the week. Keep an eye on the blog for the additional seventh blog post as we are going to post the conclusion of the report and talk about the meaningful inspiration from this community project.

Feel free to contact us at ssi.agrd.walkway@gmail.com for further inquiries.

UBC Agricultural Roadway Group

It is almost the end of the project. The final report and documents hopefully will be done on next week. All our group members are working hard on organizing the data and summarizing the evaluations.  At the meantime, we have a chance to think about the impacts of the Agricultural Road renewal project and our walkway project evaluation.

During these few weeks, the renewal project research gave us a lot of  ideas about building and maintaining a  sustainable water system, and brought us experience of being involved in a practical project with a client and organizations. Also, we got to know how our community, UBC Vancouver campus,  is trying to protect and improve the environment. The impacts of the renewal project can be categorized in three aspects:  aesthetic value, environment sustainability, and society value. Here are the pictures of Agricultural Road before and after renewal.

Agricultural before renewal

Agricultural Road after renewal

Aesthetic value

Compared the pictures above, a lawn with a nice looking x-cross pavement was implemented in the renewal project.  More trees and shrubs were planted to cover the bioswale and runoff tubes. Also, the reconstructed concrete pavement and new benches outside LSK building create a aesthetic pleasure to users.

Environment Sustainability 

The new water system of Agricultural Road effectively utilizes runoff and stormwater to irrigate plants and save potable water.

– The bioswale stores stormwater and allows stromwater to infiltrate into soil slowly.

– The large area of lawn absorbs most of the runoff.

– Runoff and stromwater are stored naturally through underground tubing system and reused for irrigation.

– Less energy is used in irrigation.

Since we are using the rainfall intensity data from 1992, the present rainfall intensity might be slightly different due to global warming effects as well as La Nina effect. This is an issue we need to consider in our evaluations. Global warming brings the increase of  atmosphere temperature, which can cause more rain than snow in winter and more evaporation in summer. The extra rainfall during rainy reasons will be a burden to the runoff collection system. And the extra need of water for irrigation in summer will be a problem of the irrigation system as well.

Society Value

The Agricultural Road renewal project affected the society from the beginning to the end. It first caught people’s attention with its construction disturbance, but ended as a pleasant looking renewal. UBC as a leader in imparting knowledge and technologies, should pioneer the green maintenance and sustainability ideas to students. The Agricultural Road project perfectly promotes the water recycling ideas and concerns about global warming to the society.

Feel free to contact us at ssi.agrd.walkway@gmail.com for further inquiries.

UBC Agricultural Roadway Group

According to the project schedule, we finished data collection last week and started the evaluation of  Agricultural Road. The evaluation will take two weeks on the schedule. This week’s blog post will organize the project processes, present the project management outline and the achievements of data collection while we are still working on  evaluating.

Project Management

Based on the three-week research, we have a clear understanding about the project of Agricultural Road Walkway renewal project. Here is the plan about how we are going to finish the final steps of the sustainability evaluation according to the Sustainable Sites Initiative Rating System.

Objective:

To analyze the sustainability of the utilization of water about Agricultural Road Walkway after renewal for presenting the success of the renewal project.

Community:

The Agricultural Road renewal project affects the community of University of British Columbia and is a part of UBC students and staffs’ daily life. Therefore, our client, UBC Planning needs this evaluation to make sure the renewal project is green for the local community and is aesthetic to pedestrians.

Data Collection:

– Site plan drawings were obtained from Karen Kiest Lanscape Architects and our client, Dean Gregory

– Landscape design details and maintenance plan were obtained from UBC Landscape designer, Jeff Nulty

– Rain fall  intensity data and hydrology concepts were provided by the CIVL 202 instructor, Dr. Susan Nesbit

Constraints:

– To get a perfect evaluation of the water utilization for site, there are eight different sections under the SSI-Water that are needed to be evaluated. Two of the criterion are not eligible to analyze based on the project boundaries:

• 3.3 Protect and restore riparian, wetland and shoreline buffers (worth 3 to 8 credits of the evaluation)
• 3.4 Rehabilitate lost streams, wetlands and shorelines (worth 2 to 5 credits of the evaluation)

Time Table

Jan 16 – Jan 20      Assign the roles and responsibilities to group members

Jan 23 – Jan 27      Schedule project plan

Jan 30 – Feb 3        Collect data needed for evaluations

Feb 6 – Feb 17        Data calculations including the use of TR55- the software for analyzing water quality on site

Feb 20 – Feb 24     Compile all the sections of water utilization evaluations and finish the final report

Feb 27                        Hand in the report and post the final blog post

Feel free to contact us at ssi.agrd.walkway@gmail.com for further inquiries.

UBC Agricultural Roadway Group

During the past week, we started collecting all the data we need for the calculations and analyses of the site. We found some extra information in addition to the site plans that are needed for evaluating the credits under the Sustainable Sites Initiative.

3.1 & 3.2 Rainfall intensity data and use of stormwater, waste water in irrigation, and some irrigation coefficients

3.5 Stromwater drainage data

3.6 Site maintenance plan, stormwater treatment

3.7 Site maintenance plan

3.8 Site maintenance plan

Since there are no shorelines or wetlands, section 3.3 and 3.4 will not be considered in the evaluation.

We arranged a tour with Jeff Nulty, the landscape designer from the Department of UBC Building Operations, on February 2, 2012. We toured the site again, this time more in depth understanding several interesting features of the new walkway, such as swales, semi-permeable surfaces and vegetation. Jeff explained the site maintenance plan of the west side of Agricultural Road and gave us some very useful information about the sustainability of the site as well.

Several key features were:

Irrigation:

– Collecting stormwater for irrigation instead of  using potable water.

– Bio-swales used at the rain garden can create a small pond to preserve more stormwater helping to moisturize the soil around and provide water resource for plants.

Soil:

– Fertilizing the lawn by adding composted topsoil when necessary.

– Using nutritious and environmental friendly soil obtained by composting a mixture of food waste, leaves and other organic waste at a nearby UBC site.

– Fertilizer used for the soil often comes from compost and mulch formed at UBC’s composting facility; there are no harmful chemicals used.

Stormwater Drainage:

– Elevated storm drains with lower runoff path provide spaces for storing water on the ground and extend the time for stormwater to infiltrate the soil

– Drainage pipes connecting from the roof of buildings to the storm drains collect stormwater from the roofs and transfer to underground

Pollution:

– No significant chemical leaks or car pollution on the road.

– The salt for de-icing the walkway may cause chemical pollution to the lawn by harming the health of the plants and grass, but it is not a major concern.

Pathway:

– Concrete bricked pathway has a low permeability to absorb stormwater.

– The permeable gravel pathway is used on the side of the Agricultural Road to transfer water to the ground.

The walkway has been well designed and it looks like it will meet most, if not all, the criteria under the SSI.

Feel free to contact us at ssi.agrd.walkway@gmail.com for further inquiries.

UBC Agricultural Roadway Group

On January 19, 2012, we first met our client, Dean Gregory. We had an introduction tour of the Agricultural Road Walkway led by our client,  Dean Gregory. The renewal construction of Agricultural Road was finished by the end of 2011, using a sustainable design of irrigation and stormwater systems. The concept of bioswales was implemented to trap pollutants from the surface water. In addition, a redesign of the vegetation plan was implemented in order to  maximize the use of stormwater.

(Image obtained from: http://www.sustainablesites.org/about on Jan 26/2012)

After having the basic sustainable concept of the new Agricultural Road, we could clearly determine all the tasks of this project and assign each of our group members to implement the various sections under the Sustainable Sites Initiatives – Water section and combine the work into a completed document at the end.

On January 24, 2012, we had a group meeting focusing on creating a work schedule and project plan. Under the Sustainable Sites Initiative Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks, there are eight credits that are given for evaluation. According to the SSI, the Agricultural Road projects can only be evaluated under six of the eight criterion:

1. The calculation of reduction on using potable water for irrigation by 50%. The Agricultural Road has to satisfy the criteria of at least 50% of reduction of using potable water to be evaluated as a sustainable site. (Ming)
2. The calculation of reduction on using potable water for irrigation by 75%. (Ming)
3. The  analysis of the management of stormwater on the site. We will use TR55 software to simulate the water ecosystem and check whether the water storage capacity is improved to a sustainable level by the new design of the road. (Ron)
4. The analysis on protection and enhancement of water resources and water quality, involving the construction material, site maintenance plan and stormwater treatment. A calculation about the percentage of pollutants is prevented to get into the receiving water flow is needed for the credits of sustainability. (Salman)
5. The analysis on the features of new water system. By looking at the design of the site, we need to evaluate the integration of the path of the  water system according to its physically and aesthetically. (Terence)
6. The analysis about maintaining water features to conserve water and other resources, calculating the amount of potable water is used additionally for the irrigation and water system. (Jeremy)

Credits will be given from each part based on the comparison of the criteria and practical situation. Then, all the credits will be added together to obtain the final evaluation of the site.

Therefore, we implemented a project plan assigning each person specific sections of the SSI-Water to complete. Ming, Ron, Salman, Terence, and Jeremy will work on the SSI criterion as labelled above and Iris will follow up the whole process and help out on all the parts.

Also, we made work schedule to make sure the project can be finished on time. There less than three weeks until the due date of the project.

1. On the following week, we will start collecting all the necessary data and discussing the limitations of the evaluation.
2. The weeks following, we will do the analysis and calculations based on the data we had and assign the corresponding credits for each part. We will then combine all the documents together and revise our final report.

Feel free to contact us at ssi.agrd.walkway@gmail.com for further inquiries.

UBC Agricultural Roadway Group

The Agricultural Road Walkway Project is about evaluating the hydrotechnical site at Agricultural Road, University of British Columbia by using the Sustainable Sites Initiative Criteria. The project started on January 16, 2012, and will be finished by February 27, 2012. The hydrotechnical system assessment and plan of improvement about the Agricultural Road Walkway will be provided to UBC Planning at the end of the project.

Agricultural Road Walkway Site Plan

Our team will start the project by investigating  the hydrotechnical performance of the Agricultural Road Walkway, including landscape irrigation system, planting plan, stormwater management, and construction material for controlling pollutants. After  site investigation, we will discuss the sustainability of the Agricultural Road Walkway based on the Sustainable Sites Initiative Rating System and develop a remediation plan for the site. The remediation plan will focus on protecting water resources, enhancing water quality, minimizing stormwater pollutants, and developing sustainable site maintenance and stormwater treatment plan. Throughout the next five weeks, a weekly activities summary of the project’s development will be updated until the completion of the project.

Site Visit on January 19, 2012

The project team consists of six 2nd year civil engineering students, Muhammad Salman Arshad, Ming Jin, Ron Qiu, Jeremy Lee, Terence Tsang, and Iris Feng.

Muhammad Salman Arshad is the leader of the team. He will plan the schedule and manage the process of the project to make sure the project will be accomplished on time.

Ming Jin is the client liaison. He will contact the client, Dean Gregory, inquiring further information of site design details and reporting the progress of the project.

Ron Qiu is the mentor liaison. He will contact the mentor, Fatehjit Singh, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, seeking further technical assistance for the project and scheduling necessary meetings with the mentor.

Jeremy Lee is the secretary. He will record all the decisions made and plans determined during the team meetings and organize  the meeting agenda for keeping record of the project.

Terence Tsang is the document collector. He will organize all the documents and drawings our team produce during the project and assemble them into a report at the end.

Iris Feng is the blogger. She will keep recording the team activities and achievements weekly for showing the progress of the project to the client and mentor.

Feel free to contact us at ssi.agrd.walkway@gmail.com for further inquiries.

UBC Agricultural Roadway Group