Building at the Water's Edge: The Role Of Environmental Certification and Monitoring In Waterfront Project Design

Presentation Abstract

Certification and monitoring programs should become important tools for waterfront designers and planners to ensure projects address the unique challenges of development at the water’s edge. This session will demonstrate the importance of certification programs and monitoring efforts integrating environmental, social and economic issues into pre-design and planning phases of waterfront projects. The use of three different case studies allows us to relate timely and applicable “lessons learned” at multiple scales of planning and design. These examples are: 1) From a site planning perspective: The Port of Bellingham applied LEED ND in their Waterfront District Master Plan and found key differences exist between coastal and terrestrial projects. They found LEED did not adequately address and credit important aspects of the shoreline environment. 2) From a site specific development perspective: The False Creek Development in Vancouver, B.C. applied the Green Shores certification credit rating system after project completion and found that earlier incorporation of this program could have resulted in an improved habitat design. 3) From a site environmental data collection perspective: The use of scientific monitoring at the Olympic Sculpture Park and Seattle Seawall in Seattle revealed the importance for integrating habitat-monitoring data into the planning process to create better shoreline design solutions. The post-construction data from the Olympic Sculpture Park was then used to define aspects of the Seawall project. The case studies and “lessons learned” make two key points: certification and monitoring programs can be used in different ways to incorporate the aquatic environment into the planning process; and second, the design of certification and monitoring programs and must be closely linked with project design to facilitate positive outcomes for our aquatic environment.

Session Title

Session S-08G: Rethinking Our Waterways: Effective Collaboration with Landowners, Project Partners and Decision Makers

Conference Track

Shorelines

Conference Name

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2014 : Seattle, Wash.)

Document Type

Event

Start Date

1-5-2014 5:00 PM

End Date

1-5-2014 6:30 PM

Location

Room 6C

Genre/Form

conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)

Contributing Repository

Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Subjects – Topical (LCSH)

Waterfronts--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)--Planning; Sustainable construction--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)--Certification

Geographic Coverage

Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Rights

This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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May 1st, 5:00 PM May 1st, 6:30 PM

Building at the Water's Edge: The Role Of Environmental Certification and Monitoring In Waterfront Project Design

Room 6C

Certification and monitoring programs should become important tools for waterfront designers and planners to ensure projects address the unique challenges of development at the water’s edge. This session will demonstrate the importance of certification programs and monitoring efforts integrating environmental, social and economic issues into pre-design and planning phases of waterfront projects. The use of three different case studies allows us to relate timely and applicable “lessons learned” at multiple scales of planning and design. These examples are: 1) From a site planning perspective: The Port of Bellingham applied LEED ND in their Waterfront District Master Plan and found key differences exist between coastal and terrestrial projects. They found LEED did not adequately address and credit important aspects of the shoreline environment. 2) From a site specific development perspective: The False Creek Development in Vancouver, B.C. applied the Green Shores certification credit rating system after project completion and found that earlier incorporation of this program could have resulted in an improved habitat design. 3) From a site environmental data collection perspective: The use of scientific monitoring at the Olympic Sculpture Park and Seattle Seawall in Seattle revealed the importance for integrating habitat-monitoring data into the planning process to create better shoreline design solutions. The post-construction data from the Olympic Sculpture Park was then used to define aspects of the Seawall project. The case studies and “lessons learned” make two key points: certification and monitoring programs can be used in different ways to incorporate the aquatic environment into the planning process; and second, the design of certification and monitoring programs and must be closely linked with project design to facilitate positive outcomes for our aquatic environment.