Oral Abstract Details

Author(s):
Ran Ran

Affiliation:
Auburn University master of Landscape Architecture

Presentation Type:
Oral

Topic Area:
Ecosystem impacts on human communities (e.g., human health, economic well-being, political action)

Abstract Text:
There are several issues need to be addressed in the city of Mobile, including: poverty, aging infrastructure and flooding. The studio seeks to develop innovative planning and design techniques for civic hydrology within Mobile’s highly urbanized downtown core and mitigate impact on Mobile Bay by incorporating low impact best management practices. The objective of this project is to provide enhancement toward improving quality of life in the downtown urban center by reducing urban floods through inventive storm water management design. I propose to plan and design a system of green infrastructures to collect and clean the runoff water at the different hubs in the downtown Mobile and distribute them through links which would be constituted of the underground or on-the-ground water channels. The destination of the system, which is also serving as an important hub, is the most valuable resource in the city of Mobile---the waterfront area. I choose Bienville Square and its parking lot as my further design test area, which is located in the center of downtown Mobile. The runoff without certain direction cannot be discharged in time and some vacant spaces are not taken into use functionally. The historic fountain in the center of Bienville Square cannot work a lot because of the large amount of water consumption. The site has not enough attraction to slow down people’s paces due to the lack of green. So I propose to design a series of green infrastructures to modify all the conditions mentioned above. The redevelopment of the city will promote its attraction for tourism and economic activities based on its historic background. Revitalization of the Mobile Bay Urban Area can bring educational, ecological and economic significances to both local and regional area. Inevitable urban development and flooding issues need to be addressed in the environmentally protective and economically prudent way. The planning and design process and approaches are as follows: 1）Assessment and research of existing conditions 2) Case study analysis 3) On-site design charrette 4) Design concepts, graphics and text deliverables that reflect design testing and feasibility analysis, including scenario development and design overlays 5) Feasibility analysis and suitability analysis. In order to further modify the planning and designing the Green Street Project in the city of Mobile, Alabama, there is still a lot of work to do. We have to do much more research on the nonpoint polluted water in different areas of the city’s downtown and calculate the rainfall amount in diverse situation in order to better manage the local water issues by using appropriate green infrastructure system. In addition, doing research on the city’s civic infrastructure systems and topographies in both large scale and small scale in the city would have great significance, since we could find the best way to distribute the rainfall and connect the hubs with links in the whole green infrastructure system.