Natural Resources
Green Infrastructure is the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas that naturally recharges aquifers, improves water quality and quantity, and provides recreational opportunities and wildlife habitat. Green infrastructure manages stormwater by capturing raindrops where they fall. CNT encourages reuse of natural moisture by using rain gardens, swales, green roofs, tree planting, permeable pavement and other low impact approaches to restore natural drainage functions and recycle stormwater in urban environments.
CNT’s Natural Resources work is rooted in the belief that if we change land use and investment patterns—capture water where it falls instead of building expensive treatment facilities—we can save money, have more reliable systems and create more benefits for people and places. Areas of focus include developing tools to map and analyze the values of green infrastructure, researching and demonstrating stormwater best management practices (BMPs), and promoting changes in local, regional and national policy.
Why is this important?
- Green Infrastructure approaches help save money, support urban sustainability, and use limited financial resources more efficiently by harnessing the natural filtering abilities of plants, trees and soil to protect water quality, reduce runoff volumes, and recharge groundwater supplies.
- Regionally, this means that water management helps open spaces and natural areas and improves water quality, provides recreational opportunities and enhances wildlife habitats for all to enjoy.
- Flash flooding can devastate homes and neighborhoods, but with judicious use of green areas, rain gardens, permeable pavements, and other green infrastructure strategies this threat can be avoided or reduced.
Learn more about our green infrastructure strategies by reviewing our projects, tools and publications through the links on this page.
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Pulaski Park, in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, has a long history of community participation. The park field house, built in 1914, now plays host to neighborhood classes and fitness programs, local crafts fairs, a theater group and a sword-fighting club, and a legendary Haunted House. Now Pulaski Park is serving the community in a new way- by demonstrating green technologies and how communities can get involved.
On Saturday October 18th, a group of 40 volunteer engineers and 30 local students from Kelly High School built a rain garden at the Pulaski Park pool house. The rain garden event was organized by CNT in collaboration with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) Students and Young Professionals Committee and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC) as part of the 2008 WEF Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFtec). The garden is 250 square feet and contains 250 native Illinois prairie and woodland plants. In addition to soil conditioning and planting, the event included a “hose-cutting” ceremony with media and Chicago dignitaries, demonstrations of disconnecting a downspout and installing rain barrels, a working model of a wastewater treatment facility, and sessions on the importance of preserving water quality through community action.The rain garden and disconnected downspout are located next to the Pulaski Park pool house. This area abuts the heavily used children’s pool and a new playground to be installed this fall. The rain garden will provide a beautiful landscape feature for the community and educational signage will further the outreach and impact of the demonstration garden. The substantial runoff from the pool house roof now frequently overwhelms the gutter and downspout; by disconnecting the downspout the rain garden helps to relieve that pressure while absorbing that water into the ground rather than dumping it into the sewer. “Getting out of the gutter” is a new theme for CNT’s green infrastructure core belief: that rain water is an asset not a waste product, and by infiltrating that water into the ground we can significantly reduce the threat of flooding as well as the pollution destroying our streams, rivers, and lakes.
(Photo rendering by Lynda Wallis, Freelance Illustrations)
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Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
On September 13th and 14th, 2008, the Chicago Region experienced a 2-day rainfall that was indeed the “Storm of the Century”. It was the largest storm ever recorded in the 119-year history of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. The Storm also, at 6.83 inches over two days, nearly met the definition of a 100-year storm in Chicago. Rivers surrounded houses, an interstate highway and several other arterials were closed for days, and thousands of basements were flooded throughout the region.
But CNT and St. Margaret Mary Parish found a small silver lining beneath the clouds on Chicago’s north side.
Two major church buildings on the St. Margaret Mary property, long among the first in their neighborhood to suffer from water damage during storms, weathered the storm of the century by soaking the rain’s torrent into re-opened ground where it fell. CNT had installed green infrastructure features at the church during 2007. These natural drainage systems protected the church from harm and kept about half a block’s runoff out of the sewers, also out of the record combined sewer overflow to the Lake.
Three green infrastructure features did the trick. The largest is a bioswale, or garden, in a cutout in the main parking lot that collects water and transfers it into the soil, thus bypassing the sewer system. In addition to relieving the sewers from the sanctuary building, the elementary school and the rectory, the bioswale serves as an arrestingly beautiful accent in the church courtyard and a traffic organizer. Two rain gardens are located in the lawn fronting the rectory. They divert runoff from the roof to the soil and replaced a massive hedge with two attractive native features.
The third improvement was installed in a large parking lot at the rear of the site, adjacent to the activities center. This building has been plagued by water frequently backing up into its first-floor gymnasium. CNT determined that a major cause of this flooding was a sewer line from the parking lot that joined the drainage from the building through a single line to the undersized street drain. CNT arranged for Ozinga, a local cement contractor, to donate a demonstration site for their Filtercrete brand of pervious concrete. A 15 by 15-foot square of asphalt pavement was removed from around each of the two parking lot drains and replaced with Filtercrete. Now, most of the runoff from the parking lot never enters the problem sewer.
And Father James Barrett of St. Margaret Mary explained the benefits of green infrastructure to his congregation:
“At St. Margaret Mary, we were very fortunate in that there was little rain damage… Since we put the water permeable concrete in the Activity Center parking lot and the bioswale in the church parking lot, there has been no water in either building… Thank you Ozinga Concrete Company and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. You saved us hours in clean up costs.”
And 20 miles south of Chicago at Our Lady Gate of Heaven Church, CNT also installed a bioswale. The parking lot there had frequently been filled with up to two feet of water. Now instead of remaining flooded for about three days, the lot is usable within a day.
CNT uses the installations at the two churches for research under funding from the USEPA. The bioswales and rain gardens are instrumented with a rain gauge and water level meters so that the performance of the green infrastructure can be measured for a period of years. Plans have been made for monitoring the performance of the Filtercrete, as well. The performance on September 13th and 14th will be thoroughly analyzed along with many other storms in coming years.
The bioswales are 650 and 900 square feet in area, draining pavement six times their own areas, and can be replicated elsewhere for approximately $10,000 to $12,000. The rain gardens are each 100 square feet in area and 10 inches deep. They each manage water from a roof area of about 600 square feet. The native plants in them, one plant per square foot, can be purchased for $2 each. The cost of the pervious pavement patches will depend on local availability, but should cost less than $5,000 apiece.
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Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 4:20 pm
CNT continues to bring communities together with the planting of rain gardens at three new sites in June. The plantings are demonstrating both the beauty of natural landscapes and the ecological benefits of rain gardens to reduce and filter stormwater runoff. Ultimately, these projects aim to raise awareness of green infrastructure and build community momentum towards implementing sustainable stormwater management practices on a grander scale. Here are our latest steps along the path to sustainable stormwater management in greater Chicago.
Bellwood
On Saturday, June 21st, CNT staff and 27 Bellwood volunteers planted over 300 native Illinois prairie plants in two rain gardens. The gardens, sponsored by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Village of Bellwood, are located at the Bellwood Public Library and across from Bellwood’s Water Department. Bellwood’s Mayor, Frank Pasquale, helped with the planting, as well as many of the Village’s Trustees, city department heads and citizens. Community volunteers from the Bellwood Lions Club, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, and others of all ages and interests came out to participate in a fun outdoor activity to benefit the entire Village.
Bellwood residents learned of the aesthetic and ecological benefits of native plants, while Mayor Pasquale and city officials put their muscle behind the greening of the landscape that Bellwood aims to become a signature of its local development strategy. Rain gardens provide a simple and beautiful solution to muddy yards and can reduce stormwater entering sewers via disconnected downspouts.
More photos of Bellwood planting at CNT’s Flickr page.
Hanson Park School
As part of “Hanson Park School Conservation Day 2008″ on June 4th, CNT staff, along with Hanson Park School students and staff, planted 120 native Illinois prairie plants in two rain gardens. The CNT planting was supported by the Prince Charitable Trust as part of an outreach program aimed at partnering with community groups to raise awareness of the benefits of green infrastructure throughout Chicago. CNT staff demonstrated the effectiveness of rain gardens as alternatives to conventional stormwater management practices. With their planting, students helped to reduce water pollution, add beauty to their school, and increase wildlife attraction-all while having a fun time outside.
The two rain gardens were placed next to the school’s kindergarten trailer. The 750 ft2 roof drains into the two new gardens, simultaneously providing relief to local sewers and beautifying the school grounds.
More photos of Hanson Park Elementary School planting at CNT’s Flickr page.
Gallistel Elementary Language Academy
In early June, with the support of the US Environmental Protection Agency, CNT provided another city demonstration at the Matthew Gallistel Language Academy on Chicago’s east side. As part of a Chicago Conservation Corps program, the school’s Environmental Club partnered up with CNT to bring a rain garden of native plants to the school grounds. Students received a hands-on lesson about the hydrological benefits of native vegetation and enjoyed an outdoor activity. The planting at Gallistal was another step in CNT’s community outreach program focused around the city’s Calumet region.
Future Projects
CNT will be continue to extend the benefits of green infrastructure around Chicago’s urban communities, with the goal of removing impervious surfaces from local parks, schools, churches and other community spaces. Projects include the removal of a layer of asphalt from under a south loop park and the conversion of a former outdoor stage into green open space at the Hanson Park School.
With an emphasis on community outreach, CNT is partnering with community groups to organize demonstration plantings and raise awareness of green infrastructure for stormwater management. If you are interested in volunteering or bringing these demonstrations to your local church, school, or community, please contact us at swise@cnt.org.
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