Biography

She earned her Ph.D. in Architecture/Environment and Behavior from the University of Michigan. Envious of the large data sets in public health, she asked and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health offered her a Visiting Scientist position. She has been at Harvard Chan for 18 years, publishing and teaching about bicycle facilities, preferences of underserved populations, and public health. With colleagues, their 2011 article on cycle tracks, or protected bike lanes, was the first article in North America to suggest that cycle tracks were safer than biking in the road. She won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. She had expanded her studies to address climate change through careful attention to details in the greenway corridor.

Presentation

Identifying the Fine Details for Greenways to Fully Address Climate Change:
A 40-year career in greenways continues

Bikers and walkers address climate change but what of the corridor itself. Urban greenways as cycle tracks, or protected bike lanes, include wide expanses of hardscape, trees in inferior tree pits, and planted bioswales through which bikers and walkers cannot travel. The pores in permeable pavement fill with sediment and pavers add to heat island effect. The Glasgow Climate Change Summit recommendations included planting trees but the wrong tree in inferior conditions will not live to absorb and store carbon dioxide as would a tall full canopy tree in an expanse of dirt covered with grass. Enabling nighttime biking and walking means careful lighting and not tall cobra head lights to guide drivers. Greenway planners could look to the many airplane-runway sidewalks and sidewalk/street level cycle tracks in urban areas and replace half of the pavement with hardy grass. Grass, which can be biked or walked on, builds soil and 4 inches of soil can hold 7 inches of rainwater. Turf grass is a “climate locker” for CO2 and pushes carbohydrates out of roots. Electric mowers eliminate gas emissions and plant food can be climate-responsive. Underneath grass, tree roots can support a large canopy to provide shade and cool the grass understory and pavement. Lighting could be low, dimmable, colored, LED with dark sky covers, and positioned to light the sidewalk and cycle track corridor. While cafés on the wide sidewalks help economic development and socializing, every detail in a greenway corridor needs assessment to determine if, and by how much, that detail lessens climate change. Solar farms, rain forests, and elimination of coal plants are responsive solutions but so are countless blades of grass, leaves, and human-centered luminaries.

Biography

He is an award-winning author, planner and landscape architect who has completed greenway work in 250 communities, in 37 states, as well as in Europe, Asia, and South America. He is the recipient of four dozen national, regional and local awards. Chuck is a Fellow in the ASLA, he is the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus of the NC State University College of Design, and a 2019 recipient of the NC State University Watauga (WA-TAUGA) Medal -- the highest non-academic award. Chuck is the coauthor of two technical books on greenways: Greenways. A Guide to Planning, Design and Development (1993), and Trails for the Twenty First Century (2001). His most recent book, published in March 2020, is entitled “The Greenway Imperative: Connecting Communities and Landscapes for A Sustainable Future.”

Presentation

The Greenway Imperative: A Call to Action

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the role that greenways and conserved greenspace play in providing critically important outdoor space for human activity, while at the same time promoting public health, safety, and well-being. More than a pathway through the woods, Greenways are a landscape typology that addresses multiple issues: sustainability, resilience, conservation, and economic development. With our planet’s ecosystems under stress from climate change, it is critically important for biodiversity, habitat, and human health that we implement greenspace conservation programs across the planet. One of the barriers to the adoption and implementation of greenspace conservation is acceptance of the need and benefit of such plans. Chuck Flink will demonstrate why we need greenways to address some of the planet’s most important imperatives, such as providing essential green infrastructure, shaping the way people travel within their communities, and boosting the economies of cities and towns. Mr. Flink will share lessons learned that can be applied to communities large and small, and which concludes with a proposal to complete an interconnected network of greenways.

Biography

He is a Reader in Environmental & Landscape Planning at the University of Manchester, UK. Ian’s work focusses on the development, application and evaluation of Green Infrastructure policy and practice in the UK and internationally. His work examines the influence of governance, finance, and thematic understandings of landscape quality in the delivery of more sustainable places. Ian has received funding from the EU (Horizon 2020), the Newton Fund and Defra/Natural England to develop evidence supporting the delivery of Nature-Based Solutions and a national Green Infrastructure standard in the UK. He is also the author of Global Green Infrastructure (Routledge, 2016), Planning Cities with Nature (Lemes de Oliveira & Mell, 2019, Springer) and Green Infrastructure Planning: Reintegrating Landscape in Urban Planning (Lund Humphries, 2019).

Presentation

Green infrastructure - panacea or deus ex machina.
Is ‘green infrastructure’ the solution to the urban problem?

With the increased frequency of extreme weather events, growing health inequality in urban areas, and a dislocation between people and nature the value of out cities is changing. The evolution of Green Infrastructure planning has been proposed as a response to these issues supporting the delivery of multi-functional socio-economic and ecological benefits in our cities. However, variability remains in the framing and application of Green Infrastructure despite an extensive evidence base of its added-value to society. Examining the rationale for the lack of consensus highlights how the conceptual grounding, political considerations, and practical use of Green Infrastructure may be both problematic and part of the solution.

Green Infrastructure may therefore be considered as a panacea addressing the complexity of societal, ecological and economic ills. Alternatively it can be framed as a deus ex machina parachuted into urban debates without sufficient knowledge of best practice to provide solutions to questions we have not yet asked. To explore whether Green Infrastructure is panacea or deus ex machina requires an examination of how terminological variation and tenure, political support for environmental investment, and the promotion of alternative framings by stakeholder shape the ability of urban nature to address the changing form, function and needs of cities.