Creating False Images: Stream Restoration in an Urban Setting

Stream restoration has become a multibillion dollar business with mixed results as to its efficacy. This case study utilizes pre‐ and post‐monitoring data from restoration projects on an urban stream to assess how well stream conditions, publicly stated project goals, and project implementation align. Our research confirms previous studies showing little communication among academic researchers and restoration practitioners as well as provides further evidence that restoration efforts tend to focus on small‐scale, specific sites without considering broader land use patterns. This study advances our understanding of restoration by documenting that although improving ecological conditions is a stated goal for restoration projects, the implemented measures are not always focused on those issues that are the most ecologically salient. What these projects have accomplished is to protect the built environment and promote positive public perception. We argue that these disconnects among publicized goals for restoration, the implemented features, and actual stream conditions may create a false image of what an ecologically stable stream looks like and therefore perpetuate a false sense of optimism about the feasibility of restoring urban streams.     

Hydrologic Controls on Nitrogen and Phosphorous Dynamics in Relict Oxbow Wetlands Adjacent to an Urban Restored Stream

Although wetlands are known to be sinks for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), their function in urban watersheds remains unclear. We analyzed water and nitrate (NO₃^?) and phosphate (PO₄^3?) dynamics during precipitation events in two oxbow wetlands that were created during geomorphic stream restoration in Baltimore County, Maryland that varied in the nature and extent of connectivity to the adjacent stream. Oxbow 1 (Ox1) received 1.6‐4.2% and Oxbow 2 (Ox2) received 4.2‐7.4% of cumulative streamflow during storm events from subsurface seepage (Ox1) and surface flow (Ox2). The retention time of incoming stormwater ranged from 0.2 to 6.7 days in Ox1 and 1.8 to 4.3 days in Ox2. Retention rates in the wetlands ranged from 0.25 to 2.74 g N/m²/day in Ox1 and 0.29 to 1.94 g N/m²/day in Ox2. Percent retention of the NO₃^?‐N load that entered the wetlands during the storm events ranged from 64 to 87% and 23 to 26%, in Ox1 and Ox2, respectively. During all four storm events, Ox1 and Ox2 were a small net source of dissolved PO₄^3? to the adjacent stream (i.e., more P exited than entered the wetland), releasing P at a rate of 0.23‐20.83 mg P/m²/day and 3.43‐24.84 mg P/m²/day, respectively. N and P removal efficiency of the oxbows were regulated by hydrologic connectivity, hydraulic loading, and retention time. Incidental oxbow wetlands have potential to receive urban stream and storm flow and to be significant N sinks, but they may be sources of P in urban watersheds.     

Characterizing a Major Urban Stream Restoration Project: Nine Mile Run (Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania, USA)

Urban stream restoration continues to be used as an ecological management tool, despite uncertainty about the long‐term sustainability and resilience of restored systems. Evaluations of restoration success often focus on specific instream indicators, with limited attention to the wider basin or parallel hydrologic and geomorphic process. A comprehensive understanding of urban stream restoration progress is particularly important for comparisons with nonurban sites as urban streams can provide substantial secondary benefits to urban residents. Here, we utilize a wide range of indicators to retrospectively examine the restoration of Nine Mile Run, a multi‐million dollar stream restoration project in eastern Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA). Examination of available continuous hydrological data illustrates the high cost of failures to incorporate the data into planning and adaptive management. For example, persistent extreme flows drive geomorphic degradation threatening to reverse hydrologic connections created by the restoration and impact the improved instream biotic communities. In addition, human activities associated with restoration efforts suggest a positive feedback as the stream restoration has focused effort on the basin beyond the reach. Ultimately, urban stream restoration remains a potentially useful management tool, but continued improvements in post‐project assessment should include examination of a wider range of indicators.     

“Alternative futures”: a methodology for integrated sustainability considerations,the case of Nuremberg West,Germany

In the context of the desire to steer urban transformation towards sustainability transition, the development of proposals for alternative futures assists policy-makers and practitioners in focusing on impact by organising the various drivers, particularly spatial ones that cause an interactive urban system to transit. This paper presents the methodology that has been developed by the Chair for Urban Development, Munich University of Technology (TUM) as it was working within an inter-disciplinary research team on a project commissioned by the municipality of Nuremberg. The objective of this project was to develop ideas for regenerating the formerly industrial area of Nuremberg West (NW) under the guiding theme of sustainable urban development. This methodology focuses on the development of proposals of positive and possible transformations of NW in the year 2050 based on the analysis of economy, housing and space at various scales and a systematic assessment of trends. These alternative futures became framing and guiding narratives to internalise and anchor the debate in-between the various disciplines involved in this project.     

Gathering “wild” food in the city: rethinking the role of foraging in urban ecosystem planning and management

Recent “green” planning initiatives envision food production, including urban agriculture and livestock production, as desirable elements of sustainable cities. We use an integrated urban political ecology and human–plant geographies framework to explore how foraging for “wild” foods in cities, a subversive practice that challenges prevailing views about the roles of humans in urban green spaces, has potential to also support sustainability goals. Drawing on research from Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle, we show that foraging is a vibrant and ongoing practice among diverse urban residents in the USA. At the same time, as reflected in regulations, planning practices, and attitudes of conservation practitioners, it is conceptualised as out of place in urban landscapes and an activity to be discouraged. We discuss how paying attention to urban foraging spaces and practices can strengthen green space planning and summarise opportunities for and challenges associated with including foragers and their concerns.     

城市轨道交通上盖物业振动影响评价标准选取探讨

对现行的振动评价标准中相关问题进行分析,认为VLzmax和VLz10分别作为城市轨道交通列车振动和环境振动背景评价量是合理的。并对标准JGJ/T 170-2009应用提出了建议。     

攀枝花市城市基础设施与土地收益关联度分析

以攀枝花市为例,综合运用GIS空间分析技术和变异系数权重分析、灰色关联度等方法建立了城市基础设施与土地收益的关联度模型,定量分析城市基础设施与土地收益的关联关系,揭示两者间的关联规律和作用机理.结果表明：①城市基础与土地收益存在较大关联性;②城市基础设施与土地收益关联度在时间序列上具有明显的波动性且呈周期性变化;③城市基础设施与土地收益关联度在空间上呈分异特征.     

Characteristics of air particulate matter and their sources inurban and rural area of Beijing, China

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城市生态休闲绿地建设研究

城市生态休闲绿地不同于城市绿地,主要包括其中的城市公园绿地和其他绿地。结合市民平时主要在居住地附近散步、节假日喜欢到郊区游憩的休闲活动特点,把生态休闲绿地分为日常短时休闲绿地和节假日长时休闲绿地。在城市生态休闲绿地建设中,应重点建设日常短时休闲绿地,配套开发节假日长时休闲绿地,完善城市公共绿地的休闲设施,增强城市公共绿地的大众性,提高专有绿地的开放性。     

快速城镇化进程中城市河流污染治理问题研究

城市河流是城市的生命线,对于当地经济发展和居民身心健康均有不可替代的重要作用。通过分析我国城市河流污染的总体现状发现,我国城市河流治污面临着城市化进程、区域利益分化、职能部门能力缺失等困境,以此为前提,分别从树立正确的城市河流治污观念、设立流域综合管理机构、预防为主和防控结合、建立科学合理的城市河流生态系统修复模式几方面提出完善对策。