Site Selection and Analysis

Eastern and Western Passage to Narragansett Bay
Eastern and Western Passage to Narragansett Bay

Rhode Island—the Ocean State—is a small state with a long shoreline which extends inland to include multiple waterways, most notably, the 342sq km Narragansett Bay. Shoreline types on the bay include fringing and meadow salt marshes, bulkhead and other modified perimeters and the coastal areas feature a combination of disturbed sites, preserved marshland, and post-industrial fill. Current shoreline planting strategies offer few solutions for wide ranging conditions and focus on preservation rather than creating solutions which might yield robust landscapes which are resilient to climate change. Rhode Island was not subject to the worst losses from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, and thus it is an exemplary site for developing structures of coastal resilience, which can be advanced gradually and through systematic evaluation and adaptation.

Storm surge and upland flooding in the Narragansett watershed pose a considerable risk to coastal towns along the Bay. As increased urban runoff and higher salt water levels merge on the coastal zone, some species are threatened while others adapt. Marsh and dunes recede while weedy forest cover creeps closer to the beach front. Plants with high salt tolerance that are capable of rapid establishment have begun to colonize areas with accommodating soil. Designers can capitalize on this process, deploying plants to prevent erosion and build resilient coasts.

This project proposes a combination of large stands of vegetation with minimal, precisely located, hardened coastal structures to provide cost-effective redundancy to coastline protection measures, add to the life span and effectiveness of traditional coastal structures, limit coastal erosion, and provide habitat and recreational space. The project focuses on three sites representative of three coastal conditions: Warren in Upper Bay is prone to seasonal flooding; the Greater Hummocks in Mid Bay is undergoing salt marsh migration; and Sachuest Point in Lower Bay is threatened by coastal erosion. The Graduate School of Design envisions coastal forests and shrub lands as a novel ecosystem, a cultural resource, and a social and economic opportunity.

Download Phase 1 Report here

Framework

Sassafrass Albidum

A stand of Sassafrass albidum, as observed in Hummock formation, located adjacent to oceanfront. The plants were disturbed by wind and salt spray during Hurricane Sandy, but as a result of their inherent resilience have not only survived, but prospered. In particular, this stand of Sassafrass albidum prevails due to its assertive root suckering performance.

Rosa Rugosa

A large thicket, primarily Rosa rugosa. Although listed as a noxious weed in 46 states, R. rugosa has naturalized throughout the northeast. A vigorous sprouter, this rose is so well adapted to salt spray, sandy substrate and disturbance, that it provides erosion control without the need for costly installation strategies. The image above shows a two-year old, self-regulated regeneration following Hurricane Sandy.

Sachuest

Area of interest 1- Sachuest. The relationship between a critical drinking water reservoir for the Newport area, and its proximity to open water is explored in this survey, indicating critical but conflicting adjacencies. A remnant coastal forest can be observed at high ground towards the West, indicating a former shoreline condition that would have existed prior to the filling of this marsh, and the construction of the reservoir.

Hummocks

Area of interest 2- Hummocks. Formerly a seasonal fishing village, ‘The Hummocks’ is also known as Island Park Cove. Low elevations are clearly identified in this survey, which tracks the upland marsh, the reinforced circulation routes and the narrow effects of tidal fluctuation, making it an area prone to seasonal flooding and heavy rates of surge along the Sakonnet River.

Warren

Area of interest 3- Warren. Public beaches, primary residences and tides convene in this survey, explicating conflicting cultural and ecological imperatives. While public beaches ought to remain a resource, edge conditions necessitate multiple functions. Warren is positioned in a complex of waterways and population density, making relocation not only a consideration but also a certainty.

Design Panorama

The Graduate School of Design approaches Natural or Nature Based Features (NNBF) not as a construction detail or as a hardened assembly, but as a durable bionetwork, which will necessitate long-term thinking and large-scale action. A series of designed forests can become a public resource- a novel ecosystem that not only anticipates disturbance, but thrives on it.

What is Resilience?

USACE Construction section; Hardened Structure: Armored Berm.
GSD Design Section; Rhizomatic Structure: Attenuation Forest.

What is Resilience?

“Resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a perturbation or disturbance of stochastic nature by resisting damage and recovering quickly.”

Folke, C., Carpenter,S., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., Holling C.S., Walker, B. (2002). “Resilience and Sustainable       Development: Building Adaptive Capacity in a World of Transformations”. Ambio31 (5): 437–440

“The ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions.”

Executive order-Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change, White House, 2013

Resilience is typically associated with the scale of an ecosystem. However, resilience can also be a micro-condition. By nature competitive, plants emerge and ‘spring back’ based on regimes of disturbance; a characteristic which be managed to fuel a community-based resilience strategy without resorting to the restrictive procedures of conservation. Recognizing the opportunities afforded by Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF), the designs we propose for Warren, the Hummocks, and Sachuest acknowledge adaptation and welcome modification.

Trees with a single stem and a high canopy are particularly susceptible to environmental disturbance. In our proposed design, we specify trees that break or fall and then re-sprout secondary trunks, making them resilient in the face of strong winds and erosive waves. Forests of multi-stemmed, disturbance-adapted specimens will reproduce readily. Shrubs, by contrast, develop a thicket or a mass of offshoots which yields a horizontal spread, rather than a vertical elevation. Most shrubs require a complete disturbance (often being cut to the ground) in order to reemerge as larger and hardier thickets. The combination of a dense, rhizomatic substrate and a copse-like arrangement creates a layer of growth that will both attenuate and mitigate the effects of storm surge. These planted barriers will be activated by disturbance, generating larger, more productive environments as they develop.

“Sprouting in trees, which results in the production of secondary trunks, is an induced response to injury or to a dramatic change in surrounding environmental conditions.”

Peter Del Tredici Sprouting in Temperate Trees (2001)

Click here to view resilient tree species.

Click here to view resilient shrub species.

Click on the plant images below to view their root morphologies.

Ocean State

Likelihood

“The chance of a specific outcome occurring, where this might be estimated probabilistically.”
IPCC, 2013

US Coastal Infrastructure, USACE

Coastal planning projects first emerged as a form of military defense and fortification where land was prioritized and accordingly protected. The next generation of projects positioned the sea as the enemy, aiming to construct projects that would keep water out, forming a hard line between water and land. The third generation of projects is now emerging, and developing flexible systems that offer a threshold between land and water.

The Graduate School of Design examines the Coastal Engineering Manual (CEM) in order to add significant detail to this shifting paradigm, incorporating an active role for designers to take a lead role in anticipation and adaptation projects. The manual is available here and described in a diagram here .

Lying at the northernmost periphery of Hurricane Sandy’s track, Rhode Island was spared its most disastrous effects. Considerable knowledge can be gained by studying areas of least impact, and not only reacting to areas hardest hit.
The United States Army Corps (USACE) deploys a system of classification that prioritizes the protection and restoration of certain damage-prone areas, a catalogue that spans all coastal regions. According to the Coastal Engineering Manual (CEM) economic density possesses the highest level of protection, while other areas such as barrier beaches are classified as “Do Nothing Areas”. At the same time, the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) is pioneering the application of restoration practices, with their work on likelihood zones.
Rhode Island boasts over 50% of land use is protected forest, or protected natural area. When plotted in conjunction with the likelihood of restoration status, this map indexes an overlap of ecological aspirations, which also denotes the impending future shoreline.
SAMP refers to the regulatory, planning, and adaptive procedures that are devised to protect coastal resources. This policy serves as a federally recognized management and regulatory tool, innovated upon by CRMC, in order to broaden its impact. Rhode Island has ingeniously extended the plan, creating Ocean SAMP and Metro SAMP. The Ocean SAMP study area extends from the southern coast 25 miles and authorizes offshore development with environmental oversight. However, there is a distinct lack of SAMP policy along the Sakonnet River, within the Estuary.
A soil that is “hydric” is either seasonally or perpetually inundated with water, resulting in anaerobic (non-oxygenated) conditions. These conditions are typically associated with wetlands. In Rhode Island, these wetlands serve important ecosystem services such as wave attenuation and habitat provision.
Within the framework of site characterization, it is critical to consider subsurface specifications in order to consider the effects of upwelling in inland waters. Imagine the estuary as the end point of waters that extend miles beyond the town ultimately affected by the events. Substrate becomes a major source of concern, as land stability is hinged on the layers of unconsolidated glacial deposits.

Adaptation

“In Biology, an adaptation, also called an adaptive trait, is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. Adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation.”

Huxley, Julian 1942. Evolution the modern synthesis. Allen & Unwin, London. p449

“Adaptation.. could no longer be considered a static condition, a product of a creative past, and became instead a continuing dynamic process.”

Mayr, Ernst (1982). The growth of biological thought: diversity, evolution, and inheritance (1st ed.). Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press. p. 483

Projected surge quantities forecast greater levels of surge up through the Sakonnet River corridor. While this poses a threat to each of the coastal conditions, Warren’s inundation is an exclusively urban problem, while the inundation of the Hummocks means damage for a low-income community already dealing with the specter of salt marsh migration. Lacking in significant numbers in population, storm surge through Sachuest threatens Aquidneck Island’s primary freshwater resources, Nelson and Gardiner ponds.
Narragansett Bay typifies a form of buried pre-glacial valley system common along the east coast of the United States, in which the bathymetry gently narrows and shallows across a great inland-fairing distance. The immediacy of Narragansett Bay’s steep walls and compressed entry channels in its lower bay have the potential to exacerbate flood currents during surge events which escalate as they move deeper into the bay.
arragansett Bay typifies a form of buried pre-glacial valley system common along the east coast of the United States, in which the bathymetry gently narrows and shallows across a great inland-fairing distance. The immediacy of Narragansett Bay’s steep walls and compressed entry channels in its lower bay have the potential to exacerbate flood currents during surge events which escalate as they move deeper into the bay.
In the early part of this Century Rhode Island was primarily an agricultural state. Within a matter of generations, the land use has shifted as former fields are released into early successional forest types. Rhode Island is principally composed of urbanized land and forest cover, fringed with beaches. The future projections of ecological transformation will surely embrace fewer beaches and more open water, as marshes meet upland conditions, the future shoreline will expose vertical margins, rather than a long horizontal approaches.
Aquidneck Island’s nursery industry provides the island a steady source of income. The sheer quantity of nurseries provides a distinctive opportunity for building resilience into coastal communities: a chance to generate revenue while providing trees and other plants for coastal forests and shrub communities to attenuate storm surge. Currently, the nursery industry encompasses 1,447 acres- and at roughly 900 trees per acre, this means that the landscape of Rhode Island’s nurseries are populated with 1.3 million trees. Populating the hummocks alone with trees for the proposal of the GSD team would mean planting an additional 2.7 million trees over 560 acres of land, which could generate up to 650 million dollars.
Rather than attempting to implement surge attenuation features in the immediate vicinity of population centers or pieces of critical infrastructure, the Graduate School of Design proposes a distributed network of poly-functional forests, and planted nature-based features that provide attenuation and economic opportunity along the Sakonnet River Corridor.

Precedents

To view precedent studies from around the world, click on the images below.

India
Japan
The Netherlands
United States

Design Area of Interest: Sachuest

Coastal Erosion

The loss of soil at the interface of ocean and land due to wave action.

MSN Encarta Dictionary. Erosion.  Retrieved on 2014-07-14. Archived 2009-10-31.

Sachuest Bay is home to two large fresh-water reservoirs that supply drinking water to Newport and other nearby towns.  Due to their proximity to the coast, these reservoirs are vulnerable. Our proposal for Sachuest isolates and relocates the freshwater resources to an upland and accessible condition. As a result, the former reservoirs are poised to become extensions of the remnant coastal forest. A coastal forest will extend the interests of The National Wildlife Refuge and the Norman Bird Sanctuary, effectively offering a reserve that will dampen, delay and potentially reduce incoming storm activity.

Our design proposal addresses the need for reservoir relocation while providing additional recreation space. The vulnerability of freshwater reservoirs creates an urgent situation, and so our proposal offers short-term potential and a high-resolution result, and accounts for existing uses, infrastructures and ecologies.
Our design proposal addresses the need for reservoir relocation while providing additional recreation space. The vulnerability of freshwater reservoirs creates an urgent situation, and so our proposal offers short-term potential and a high-resolution result, and accounts for existing uses, infrastructures and ecologies.
Extensive cut and fill operations enable the proposed dune system in Sachuest. The strategic relocation of reservoirs further inland secures the freshwater resource, while the filling of the two existing reservoirs creates the base for a wetland forest that buffers between the lowland and upland conditions.
Woody shrubs such as Spirea spp. will be planted on a network of dunes to provide erosion control, critical habitat and visual interest. Because of the exposed nature of Sachuest, few trees can survive close to the coast. Limited plantings of Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) and Bayberry (Myrica sp.) provide shade and slope dune stabilization.
Given the exposed nature of the Sachuest shoreline, vegetation is layered in zones before the raised road, behind it, on the filled reservoir, and in front of the proposed reservoirs. Multiple planting associations are ensure diversity of habitat, erosion control, and wind buffering.
Given the exposed nature of the Sachuest shoreline, vegetation is layered in zones before the raised road, behind it, on the filled reservoir, and in front of the proposed reservoirs. Multiple planting associations are ensure diversity of habitat, erosion control, and wind buffering.
Given the exposed nature of the Sachuest shoreline, vegetation is layered in zones before the raised road, behind it, on the filled reservoir, and in front of the proposed reservoirs. Multiple planting associations are ensure diversity of habitat, erosion control, and wind buffering.
Given the exposed nature of the Sachuest shoreline, vegetation is layered in zones before the raised road, behind it, on the filled reservoir, and in front of the proposed reservoirs. Multiple planting associations are ensure diversity of habitat, erosion control, and wind buffering.
Given the exposed nature of the Sachuest shoreline, vegetation is layered in zones before the raised road, behind it, on the filled reservoir, and in front of the proposed reservoirs. Multiple planting associations are ensure diversity of habitat, erosion control, and wind buffering.

Design Area of Interest: Hummocks

Salt Marsh Migration

  1. The expansion of coastal wetland habitat due to sea level rise.
  2. The inland movement of salt marsh habitat and wetland platns as a consequence of global climate change.

 Feagin, R. A., M. Luisa Martinez, G. Mendoza-Gonzalez, and R. Costanza. 2010. Salt marsh zonal migration and ecosystem service change in response to global sea level rise: a case study from an urban region. Ecology and Society 15(4): 14.

Located within an area locally termed the Hummocks, Island Park Cove is a non-sewered former fishing village with a population of 1,250 and an area of 560 acres. Bands of former wetland have been backfilled to encourage high-density development, which has greatly impaired its waters.  Route 138, a critical infrastructure and evacuation route for the entirety of Aquidneck Island, splits the Hummocks in a North-South direction. Any proposal for the area must ensure that evacuation routes are maintained while protecting fragile communities from storm surge.

Our design proposes a two-tiered system: first, a large shrubland on hummock-like formations will create a biological fabric that is both adaptable and resilient to persistent saltwater inundation; and second, bordering the shrubland, a tree dominant shelterbelt along Route 138 will provide essential infrastructural protection, including wind attenuation and debris capture. Pathways through each community provide a new source of recreation and a public amenity.
Our design proposes a two-tiered system: first, a large shrubland on hummock-like formations will create a biological fabric that is both adaptable and resilient to persistent saltwater inundation; and second, bordering the shrubland, a tree dominant shelterbelt along Route 138 will provide essential infrastructural protection, including wind attenuation and debris capture. Pathways through each community provide a new source of recreation and a public amenity.
Our design proposes a two-tiered system: first, a large shrubland on hummock-like formations will create a biological fabric that is both adaptable and resilient to persistent saltwater inundation; and second, bordering the shrubland, a tree dominant shelterbelt along Route 138 will provide essential infrastructural protection, including wind attenuation and debris capture. Pathways through each community provide a new source of recreation and a public amenity.
Our design proposes a two-tiered system: first, a large shrubland on hummock-like formations will create a biological fabric that is both adaptable and resilient to persistent saltwater inundation; and second, bordering the shrubland, a tree dominant shelterbelt along Route 138 will provide essential infrastructural protection, including wind attenuation and debris capture. Pathways through each community provide a new source of recreation and a public amenity.
Buffering an existing highway allows for effective evacuation, and reoccupation, both in a state of emergency and directly following an event.
Shrubs are an essential biological component to the proposal because they reproduce quickly by means of offshoots and seeds. The planting palette prioritizes fast development and spread and encourages large thickets or copses of single species. A regime of heavy pruning will allow salt-tolerant Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) to spread while providing visual interest and erosion control. Pin oak (Quercus palustris) and Bayberry (Morella pennsyvalnica) will also contribute to the effectiveness of the shrubland.
Existing salt marsh is subsiding as it migrates towards Route 128. Rather than costly restoration techniques, the barrier forest will slowly replace much of the existing salt marsh while the shrublands will increase woody biomass onsite, intensifying the marsh’s ability to attenuate erosive waves.
Existing salt marsh is subsiding as it migrates towards Route 128. Rather than costly restoration techniques, the barrier forest will slowly replace much of the existing salt marsh while the shrublands will increase woody biomass onsite, intensifying the marsh’s ability to attenuate erosive waves.
Existing salt marsh is subsiding as it migrates towards Route 128. Rather than costly restoration techniques, the barrier forest will slowly replace much of the existing salt marsh while the shrublands will increase woody biomass onsite, intensifying the marsh’s ability to attenuate erosive waves.
Existing salt marsh is subsiding as it migrates towards Route 128. Rather than costly restoration techniques, the barrier forest will slowly replace much of the existing salt marsh while the shrublands will increase woody biomass onsite, intensifying the marsh’s ability to attenuate erosive waves.
Existing salt marsh is subsiding as it migrates towards Route 128. Rather than costly restoration techniques, the barrier forest will slowly replace much of the existing salt marsh while the shrublands will increase woody biomass onsite, intensifying the marsh’s ability to attenuate erosive waves.
Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina), with its autumn leaf color and performative capabilities, is ideal for the fortification of a recreational site prone to erosion. Pruning within the first few years of growth allows this massing shrub to grow at a faster pace, surpassing the rate of erosion and stabilizing the ground condition.

Design Area of Interest: Warren

Seasonal Flooding

  1. To cover or submerge with water on a cyclical basis due to warming climate; to regularly inundate with water.
  2. An overflowing of water that submerges land which is usually dry on a seasonal basis.

MSN Encarta Dictionary, Flood, Retrieved on 2014-07-08. Architeved 2009_10_31.

Located adjacent to salt marshes, Warren is an urban site with a rich industrial past as a port and manufacturing center.  Currently, it is home to nearly 11,000 inhabitants (2010 census). However, much of the town is located on a floodplain, and so the first step towards surge attenuation is a viable housing relocation strategy to move residences to higher elevations.

Our proposal is as a two-tiered system of defense: a series of re-enforced berms, which fortify the roadways and ensure articulated evacuation routes, paired with State Forests that mitigate coastal hazards, while allowing public access to the waterfront. Occupying a critical setback, the inundation-tolerant forest performs during surge events and is comprised of disturbance dependent species adapted to the conditions.
Our proposal is as a two-tiered system of defense: a series of re-enforced berms, which fortify the roadways and ensure articulated evacuation routes, paired with State Forests that mitigate coastal hazards, while allowing public access to the waterfront. Occupying a critical setback, the inundation-tolerant forest performs during surge events and is comprised of disturbance dependent species adapted to the conditions.
Our proposal is as a two-tiered system of defense: a series of re-enforced berms, which fortify the roadways and ensure articulated evacuation routes, paired with State Forests that mitigate coastal hazards, while allowing public access to the waterfront. Occupying a critical setback, the inundation-tolerant forest performs during surge events and is comprised of disturbance dependent species adapted to the conditions.
Our proposal is as a two-tiered system of defense: a series of re-enforced berms, which fortify the roadways and ensure articulated evacuation routes, paired with State Forests that mitigate coastal hazards, while allowing public access to the waterfront. Occupying a critical setback, the inundation-tolerant forest performs during surge events and is comprised of disturbance dependent species adapted to the conditions.
The possibility of flooding demands the relocation of existing settlement to higher ground.  This relocation can only occur with a clear shift in policy.
Root-sprouting species such as the American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) can rapidly proliferate to build a surge-attenuating forest.  A management regime of coppicing spurs rapid growth, while shrubs such as False-Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa) can control erosion. Salt-tolerant Bald Cypress (Taxodim distichuym) provides windfirm characteristics while delineating the shore.
Sanctioning salt marsh retreat in Warren will invite hardier plant communities to proliferate along the edges of the berm. The coexistence of an upland forest inland and a wetland forest closer to the shore will increase the number of woody species in the area.
Sanctioning salt marsh retreat in Warren will invite hardier plant communities to proliferate along the edges of the berm. The coexistence of an upland forest inland and a wetland forest closer to the shore will increase the number of woody species in the area.
Sanctioning salt marsh retreat in Warren will invite hardier plant communities to proliferate along the edges of the berm. The coexistence of an upland forest inland and a wetland forest closer to the shore will increase the number of woody species in the area.
Sanctioning salt marsh retreat in Warren will invite hardier plant communities to proliferate along the edges of the berm. The coexistence of an upland forest inland and a wetland forest closer to the shore will increase the number of woody species in the area.
Sanctioning salt marsh retreat in Warren will invite hardier plant communities to proliferate along the edges of the berm. The coexistence of an upland forest inland and a wetland forest closer to the shore will increase the number of woody species in the area.
Producing root spouts when coppiced, American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) controls for erosion and provides a potential source of timber. Furthermore, inundation will encourage its growth and performance.

Studio Work

Excerpt from Studio syllabus: “The orchestration of diverse disciplines (as a means to generate and test design ideas) is emerging as the future of landscape architectural practice. Sites, now more than ever, are not defined by fixed boundaries, but rather emerge out of the assembly of essential conditions and the confluence of processes and engaged stakeholders. These factors will require new models of practice and cooperation to address the complexities of climate change. This studio will explore and enable landscape architects to be more powerfully positioned to define – from ecological and economic perspectives, – how project sites are defined and how design is articulated as a result.”

The studio pedagogy is centered on guiding the interpretation of these evolving modes of knowledge and testing and retesting ideas for the physical forms of a project: anticipating the incremental changes that will happen in coming decades and shaping an evolving landscape response.

Michael Van Valkenburgh, Charles Eliot Professor of Landscape Architecture

Rosetta S. Elkin, Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture

Gullivar Shepard, Guest Critic

Hummocks
Narrow River
Point Judith
Warren
Wickford
Studio Photos

Team, Sources, and Further Reading

Harvard Graduate School of Design

Rosetta S. Elkin

Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture,
Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Rosetta Sarah Elkin is Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where her instruction and research is focused on innovative applications of ecological and vegetative technologies, which consider the role of plants from innovative seed mechanics to bionetworks. She also teaches in the core studio sequence and leads seminars in representation and photography. Rosetta is a registered landscape architect in the Netherlands, and her work has been featured internationally, including installations at Les Jardins de Metis, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Chelsea Garden Show, as well as in publications such as Topos Magazine, Lotus International. Rosetta also served as faculty editor for Platform 6, recently launched by GSD and Actar publishers.

Michael Van Valkenburgh

Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture,
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.

Michael Van Valkenburgh has taught at the GSD since 1982, served as program director from 1987-89 and for a term as chairman of the department from 1991-96. As founding principal of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. (MVVA), with offices in New York City and Cambridge, Van Valkenburgh has designed a wide range of project types ranging from intimate gardens to full-scale urban design undertakings. Some of his recent projects include Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City, the Lower Don Lands in Toronto, and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis. MVVA has received numerous ASLA design awards, including the Design Award of Excellence for the Wellesley College Alumnae Valley Restoration in 2006. Van Valkenburgh was the 2003 recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Environmental Design, and in 2010 became the second landscape architect in history to receive the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for contributions to architecture as an art. In 2011 he became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Peter Del Tredici

Vegetation Consultant, Plant Biologist, Harvard University

Michael J. Luegering

Research Associate, Harvard University

Marissa Angell

Manuel Cólon-Amador

Michalis Piroccas

Collaborators

CRMC
Grover Fugate, Executive Director
James Boyd, Coastal Policy Analyst
Janet Freedman, Coastal Geologist

Department of Environmental Management
Janet Coit, Director
James Colt-Bays, Rivers and Watersheds Coordination

NRCS
Chris Miller

SaveThe Bay
Jonathan Stone, Executive Director
Tom Kutcher, Baykeeper
Wenley Ferguson, Habitat Restoration Coordinator
Rachel Calabro, Community Organizer and Advocate

USACE
Michael Riccio

URI
Jon Boothroyd
Richard Sheridan

and with Special Thanks to:
Malcolm Spaulding, Jen McCann, Bryan Oakley, Pam Rubinoff, Teresa Crean, James Boyd, Michelle Carnevale

Glossary

Adaptation Adaptive Capacity Attenuation Climate Climate Change Climate Impact Assessment Coast Coastal Engineering Community Resilience Devegetation Ecosystem Ecosystem Services Habitat Hummock Infrastructure Introduced species Invasive species Land use Likelihood MEOW NNBF (Natural and Nature-Based Features) Preparedness Storm Surge Resilience SAMP (Special Area Management Plan) SLOSH Modeling

Additional Readings

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Sea Level Rise and Rhode Island

On Resilience

Coastal Resilience

World Risk Report, 2012

New York Times Article, “Can Scientific Advice on Coastal Risk Reduction Compete with ‘We Will Not Retreat’ Politics?”

New York Times article, “Can Cities Adjust to a Retreating Coastline?”

Open Democracy: Resilience of Neoliberal Urbanism

On USACE response to climate change

USACE, Climate Change Adaptation

USACE, Coastal Risk Reduction

On wave attenuation by vegetation

Watson, James: Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Marine Ecosystems in Response to Climate Change

Storm Surge Reduction by Mangroves

USACE: Nature and Natural- Based Features

On monitoring and modeling climate change

Climate Change and Modeling

On Rhode Island

Coastal Geology

Water Quality of the Sakonnet River

Narragansett Bay

SAMP

Bibliography

Theory

Cosgrove, Denis, “Images and Imagination in 20th-century Environmentalism: From the Sierras to the Poles,” Environment and Planning A (2008), vol.4: 1862–1880.

Del Tredici, Peter. “Neocreationism and the Illusion of Ecological Restoration”. Harvard Design Magazine. (Spring-Summer 2004).  Retrieved November 4, 2011.

Demeritt, David, “The Construction of Global Warming and the Politics of Science,” Annals of the Association of American Geographer, vol 91, no. 2: 307–337.

Edwards, Paul, A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and Politics of Global Warming, (Cambridge: The MIT Press 2010), 1-25

Folke, C., Carpenter,S., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., Holling C.S., Walker, B. (2002). “Resilience and Sustainable Development: Building Adaptive Capacity in a World of Transformations”. Ambio31 (5): 437–440

Klemeš, Vít. “Conceptualization and scale in hydrology.” Journal of hydrology 65.1 (1983): 1-23.

Kaika, Maria, Erik Swyngedouw, “Cities, Natures, and the Political Imaginary,” (Newark, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012).

Koselleck, Reinhart, “Crisis,” Trans. Michaela W. Richter, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 67, No. 2 (April 2006).

McKibben, Bill. The End of Nature (New York: Random House, 2006): 3–7, 40–51.

Morton, Timothy, Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics  (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007): 181–205.

Moser, Susanne, et al, “A Framework to Diagnose Barriers to Climate Change Adaption,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 107 No. 51 (December 2010) 22026-22031.

Pilkey, Orrin H., and Katharine L. Dixon, The Corps and the Shore (Washington, DC: Island Press 1996): xi–53.

Raichlen, Fredric, Waves (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013): 49–83. 121–145, 159–187.

Sheppard, Stephen R.J., “Landscape Visualisation and Climate Change: The Potential for Influencing Perceptions and Behavior,” Environmental Science & Policy 8 (2005): 637–654.

Swyngedouw, Erik, “Apocalypse Forever?: Post-politcal Populism and the Spectre of Climate Change,” Theory Culture and Society, vol. 27, no. 213 (2007): 213–232.

Science

Arkema, et al, “Coastal Habitats and Shield People and Property from Sea-Level Rise and Storms,” Nature Climate Change, (2013): 1–6.

Arnold Arboretum, “Salt Water Injury of Woody Plants Resulting from the Hurricane of September 1938” Bulletin of Popular Information, vol. 4, no. 10, (November 1939) 43-52.

Beck, M. W., C. Shepard. 2012. Coastal habitats and risk reduction. In Mucke, P. World Risk Report 2012. Alliance Development Works, Berlin.

Bates, Robert L. and Julia A. Jackson, ed. (1984). “Hummock.” Dictionary of Geological Terms, 3rd Ed. New York: Anchor Books. 241.

Barlow, Paul, Ground Water in Freshwater-Saltwater Environments of the Atlantic Coast (Circular: 1262),1-113.

Burgdorf, David, et al. “Plant Species with Rooting Ability from Live Hardwood Materials for use in Soil Bioengineering Techniques” Plant Materials Program no.1 (January 2007) 1-9.

Burks-copes, Kelley. “Developing Ecosystem Goods and Service Performance Metrics for Natural and Nature-based Infrastructure to Support the NACCS.” US Army Engineer Research & Development Center, 3909 Halls Ferry Rd., Vicksburg, MS 39180. 30 July 2014. Web.

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