K-State landscape architecture students applying what they're learning in class to storm water management on campus

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Source: Lee Skabelund, 785-532-2431, lskab@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Diane Potts, 785-532-1090, potts@k-state.edu

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

K-STATE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS APPLYING WHAT THEY'RE LEARNING IN CLASS TO STORM WATER MANAGEMENT ON CAMPUS

MANHATTAN -- Landscape architecture students at Kansas State University are getting the chance to develop their skills while solving a problem in their own backyard.

The students are collaborating with faculty and professionals on a project to creatively resolve challenging storm water management problems on campus. The project is designed to help students recognize the value of water and its role in sustaining developed landscapes and natural ecosystems.

On Friday, Oct. 27, participating students, faculty and professionals will break into teams for a planning-design charrette from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Team members will work together to develop conceptual plans that establish a vision of landscape features that could be implemented in strategic locations along Campus Creek, and generate more detailed design ideas for improving storm water management. The primary goal is to reduce negative impacts related to storm water runoff quantity and quality within the heart of the K-State campus, according to Lee Skabelund, K-State assistant professor of landscape architecture and regional and community planning.

Areas to be studied include the large parking lots north of Weber Hall, upland and stream corridor settings near the International Student Center, and the area between Campus Creek, Boyd Hall and the Derby Dining Center from Claflin Road to Petticoat Lane.

Each team will develop a detailed design for one or more storm water mitigation improvements, typically referred to as "best management practices." Project teams will define other creative, feasible and low-maintenance ways of slowing, temporarily holding, filtering and infiltrating storm water runoff. They also will consider appropriate stream bank and stream corridor improvements that could be implemented along Campus Creek. Teams will present their proposed solutions during an open house from 4-6:30 p.m. in Seaton Hall.

The outcome of the charrette is expected to be a number of different detailed design solutions for the target area and increased understanding of storm water management issues and design applications on the part of students, K-State administrators and others who participate in or subsequently learn about the project, according to Skabelund.

Several lectures by guest experts will be given prior to the charrette. The first lecture will be by Andrea Kevrick at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, in Hale Library's Hemisphere Room. Kevrick will discuss integrating storm water planning, design and management. Kevrick is principal of InSite Design Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Mich., and is an adjunct associate professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.

Tom Price will discuss integrating storm water planning, design and management in ways that reduce flooding and the degradation of streams, rivers and lakes, improve water quality, and other issues in a presentation at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 26 in the Hemisphere Room. Price is principal water resources engineer at Conservation Design Forum Inc., in Elmhurst, Ill.

During the charrette, Dennis Haag of Tetra Tech EM Inc., Lenexa, will assist by sharing ideas about the selection and use of appropriate, well-adapted plants for storm water planning and design. Haag has more than 40 years of professional experience in the fields of environmental and biological sciences.

The charrette is sponsored by the K-State department of landscape architecture and regional and community planning and the K-State student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Financial support is being provided by the K-State student fine arts fee, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and K-State's WaterLINK, a service learning project of the Kansas Campus Compact.