Green Streets! Workshop on green infrastructure in road rights-of-way
On 1 March, 2016, Green Communities Canada and Credit Valley Conservation are hosting a workshop Roads and Runoff: implementing green streets in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (Clarke Memorial Hall, 9-4pm. $40 entrance fee includes lunch and refreshments). See agenda and register.The workshop is targeted at decision-makers, practitioners, and others with an interest in the potential for managing urban rainfall in rights-of-way. It will feature keynote speaker Robert Goo of the USEPA, and other speakers from City of Mississauga, City of Toronto, Region of Peel and the Town of Halton Hills.
There are nearly 200,000 km of roads in Ontario, creating over 1,100 square kilometers of impervious surface. Twenty-five millimeters of rainfall across the province generates over 25 billion litres of stormwater runoff from road surfaces, and millions of kilograms of pollution. Most of this pollution ends up in the Great Lakes.
Managing road runoff through rain gardens, bioswales, infiltration galleries or urban trees in the rights-of-way reduces runoff volumes and stormwater pollution. It can also make streets safer and more pleasant for pedestrians and cyclists, while sequestering carbon and reducing the urban heat island.
Some cities are now beginning to institutionalize this approach, through green streets policies. Toronto is currently developing Green Streets Technical Guidelines to be used in conjunction with its Complete Streets guidelines. Philadelphia and Boston both take similar approaches.
Pilot projects...[Read more....]
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