{"293061":{"#nid":"293061","#data":{"type":"news","title":"A River Runs Through It","body":[{"value":"\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EConstruction\u0026nbsp;Project Prompts Development of Campus Stormwater Master Plan\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech is renowned for transforming real-world challenges into teachable moments. Such was the case with the planning for the Engineered Biosystems Building (EBB) \u0026ndash; currently under construction on 10th Street \u0026ndash; a project that in turn led to the development of the 2013 Stormwater Master Plan.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe concept of stormwater management at Georgia Tech was envisioned as the \u0026ldquo;Eco-Commons\u0026rdquo; as part of the 2004 Campus Master Plan Update and 2006 Landscape Master Plan, and further refined during the 2011 Landscape Master Plan Update.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Jason Gregory, educational facilities planner with \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.space.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ECapital Planning and Space Management\u003C\/a\u003E, the Eco-Commons is a series of campus green spaces that follow the historic alignment of now buried streams, which also follow the alignment of the combined sanitary sewer lines. Restoring the historic streams would be costly and impractical; however, creating spaces that replicate the function of the streams is possible. This includes rain gardens, infiltration cells, bio retention areas, interconnected cisterns, and an increase in tree canopy coverage to mitigate stormwater runoff.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;A significant component of the Eco-Commons plan and Stormwater Master Plan is the large retention pond that is proposed near the EBB site,\u0026rdquo; said Gregory. \u0026ldquo;When planning for the EBB project, we quickly realized we needed to know exactly how large to make the pond and therefore needed to know how much water the system would generate and be captured. This is what prompted us to begin development of the plan.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003EWhy the Plan Matters\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The Stormwater Master Plan supports Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s sustainability mission and conserves water while protecting our primary drinking water source, the Chattahoochee River,\u0026rdquo; said Howard Wertheimer, director of Capital Planning and Space Management. \u0026ldquo;By developing the Stormwater Master Plan, we can provide additional educational and research opportunities with measurable results and performance metrics, as well as provide a recreational amenity for our campus community.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWertheimer said that in addition to setting the example for how to deal with stormwater at a regional level, the plan will provide a roadmap for the Eco-Commons infrastructure, allowing the Institute to reduce potable water use, reduce combined sewer overflows, and exceed the city\u0026rsquo;s stormwater regulations in a meaningful way.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003EEducational Opportunities\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EA unique aspect of the Stormwater Master Plan is the incorporation of an \u0026ldquo;educational overlay,\u0026rdquo; which provides an opportunity to update and enhance the current curriculum and stormwater-related course offerings.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EStudents in the Urban Stormwater Planning course taught by Professor Tom Debo (\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.planning.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ECity and Regional Planning\u003C\/a\u003E) served as part of the team that studied and validated the findings of the Stormwater Master Plan. Debo\u0026rsquo;s curriculum focuses on stormwater management, and the development of the stormwater model at Tech has provided a tool to measure the effectiveness of stormwater systems and test different alternatives.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We also engaged [Research Engineer] Ramachandra Sivakumar in the College of Architecture\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cgis.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ECenter for Geographic Information Systems\u003C\/a\u003E to incorporate the stormwater model in the campus GIS data,\u0026rdquo; said Gregory. \u0026ldquo;And we had assistance from Ching-Hua Huang in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cee.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)\u003C\/a\u003E in studying the quality of the water in the various cisterns on campus. We are optimistic that there are many other opportunities to engage CEE and other colleges and schools to take advantage of Georgia Tech as a living learning laboratory.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026mdash;written by Dan Treadaway, Institute Communications\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EConstruction of the Engineered Biosystems Building prompted development of a campus Stormwater Master Plan.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Construction of the Engineered Biosystems Building prompted development of a campus Stormwater Master Plan."}],"uid":"27299","created_gmt":"2014-04-29 12:58:09","changed_gmt":"2021-04-22 13:16:40","author":"Michael Hagearty","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-04-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-04-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"293101":{"id":"293101","type":"image","title":"Eco-Commons Pond","body":null,"created":"1449244313","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:51:53","changed":"1475894991","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:51","alt":"Eco-Commons Pond","file":{"fid":"199296","name":"cross_pondl.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/cross_pondl_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/cross_pondl_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":413053,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/cross_pondl_0.jpg?itok=uKxbxjlz"}},"293081":{"id":"293081","type":"image","title":"Imagining the Eco-Commons","body":null,"created":"1449244313","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:51:53","changed":"1475894991","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:51","alt":"Imagining the Eco-Commons","file":{"fid":"199294","name":"ecocommons_update.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ecocommons_update_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ecocommons_update_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":725552,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ecocommons_update_0.jpg?itok=HnhEb2YL"}}},"media_ids":["293101","293081"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.space.gatech.edu\/landscape-master-plan","title":"Georgia Tech Landscape Master Plan"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jason.gregory@space.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJason Gregory\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCapital Planning and Space Management\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}