Urban watershed management: Sustainability, one stream at a time

Environment

Volumn 48, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 26-42

  Platt, Rutherford H ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION; ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY; FLOODING; LANDSCAPE; LAW; LEGAL ASPECT; REVIEW; STREAM (RIVER); UNITED STATES; URBAN POPULATION; URBANIZATION; WATER QUALITY; WATERSHED MANAGEMENT;

EID: 33646197394     PISSN: 00139157     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3200/ENVT.48.4.26-42     Document Type: Review

References (52)

1. L. Mumford, "The Natural History of Urbanization," in E. L. Thomas Jr., ed., Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), 386, 397.
2. W. E. Rees, "An Ecological Economics Perspective," in A. R. Berkowitz, C. H. Nilon, and K. S. Hollweg, eds., Understanding Urban Ecosystems: A New Frontier for Science and Education (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2003), 118.
3. R. H. Platt, Land Use and Society: Geography, Law, and Public Policy, Revised Edition (Washington, DC: Island Press 2004);
4. and R. H. Platt, "Toward Ecological Cities: Adapting to the 21st Century Metropolis," Environment 46, no. 5 (June 2004): 10-27.
5. R. H. Platt, "Floods and Man: A Geographer's Agenda," in R. W. Kates and I. Burton, eds., Geography, Resources, and Environment, Volume II (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 28-68.
6. Eighty-ninth U.S. Congress, 2d session, A Unified National Program for Managing Flood Losses, House Document 465 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966).
7. W. H. Whyte, The Last Landscape (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968).
8. A. W. Spirn, The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design (New York: Basic Books, 1984), 115.
9. G. C. Daily, ed., Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1997).
10. National Research Council (NRC), Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999), 63.
11. For a discussion on megacities, see E. Ezcurra and M. Mazari-Hiriart, "Are Megacities Viable? A Cautionary Tale from Mexico City," Environment 38, no. 1 (January/February 1996): 6-15, 26-35.
12. NRC, ibid., pages 154-55.
13. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) classifies U.S. hydrologic units as follows (from large to small): Water Resource Regions, subregions, Hydrologic Accounting Units, and Cataloguing Units or "watersheds." USGS, What Are Hydrologic Units? http://water .usgs.gov/GIS/huc.html.
14. American Rivers and The Sierra Club, Where Rivers are Born: The Scientific Imperative For Defending Small Streams and Wetlands (Washington, DC: American Rivers and The Sierra Club, 2003).
15. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) River Restoration Subcommittee on Urban Stream Restoration, "Urban Stream Restoration," Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 129, no 7 (2003): 491.
16. American Rivers and The Sierra Club, note 12 above.
17. W. Graf, "Damage Control: Restoring the Physical Integrity of America's Rivers," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 91, no. 1 (2001): 1-27.
18. ASCE, note 13 above.
19. M. V. McGinnis, "Making the Watershed Connection," Policy Studies Journal 27, no. 3 (1999): 497.
20. D. M. Solzman, "Re-Imagining the Chicago River," Journal of Geography 100, no. 3 (2001): 118-23.
21. G. F. White, "A Perspective of River Basin Development," Law and Contemporary Problems 22, no. 2 (1957): 157-87;
22. G. F. White, Strategies of American Water Management (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969);
23. R. H. Platt, "Geographers and Water Resource Policy," in M. Reuss, ed., Water Resources Administration in the United States (Bast Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1992);
24. NRC, New Strategies for America's Watersheds (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999);
25. and NRC, Envisioning the Agenda for Water Resources Research in the 21st Century (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001).
26. H. Cortner and M. Moote, "Trends and Issues in Land and Water Resources Management: Setting the Agenda for Change," Environmental Management 18, no. 2 (1994): 167-74.
27. NRC 2001, note 19 above.
28. M. Lubell, M. Schneidet, J. T. Scholz, and M. Mete "Watershed Partnerships and the Emergence of Collective Action Institutions," American Journal of Political Science 46, no. 1 (2002): 148.
29. NRC, Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems: Science, Technology, and Policy (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1992).
30. M. V. Mcginnis, J. Wooley, and J. Gamman, "Forum: Bioregional Conflict Resolution: Rebuilding Community in Watershed Planning and Organizing," Environmental Management 24, no. 1 (1999): 1-12.
31. W. Goldfarb, "Watershed Management: Slogan or Solution" Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 21, no. 3 (1994): 487.
32. Major federal drivers of local watershed improvement efforts in the United States include the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts, the Endangered Species Act, the Historic Preservation Act, Superfund, and the National Flood Insurance Program. Funding and technical assistance may be available from the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and various units of the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, and Interior. Many of these laws and agencies are paralleled by state counterparts. C. Thomas, "Linking Public Agencies with Community-Based Watershed Organizations: Lessons from California," Policy Studies Journal 27, no. 3 (1999): 544-52.
33. "Urban Stream Corridor Management in the United States: The Interaction of Ecology and Policy" (NSF Grant No. CMS-0201409).
34. Ibid.
35. The Charles River case study is derived in part from an unpublished working paper by Sandra Jacquay-Wilson, prepared for the Ecological Cities urban watershed study as a graduate student in the University of Massachusetts Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. The Buffalo Bayou case study is derived in part from a draft working paper prepared for the project by Anne Olson, president of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP), and Aaron Tuley, a staff member of BBP. The Johnson Creek case study was researched by Heather Ruel as a geography graduate student at the University of Massachusetts. She received help from Steven Johnson of the Johnson Creek Watershed Council and Daniella Cargill, the Johnson Creek Watershed Manager for the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services. Michael Houck of Portland Audubon and the Urban Greenspaces Institute was also a key resource person for this study.
36. One of the nation's leading state court decisions upholding local floodplain regulation involved one of these sites. Ironically, after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Turnpike Realty Inc. v. Town of Dedham 284 N.E.2d 891 (Mass. 1972) held that a town could prohibit building in a wetland without compensating the owner, the site was nevertheless purchased under the Charles River Natural Valley Storage Program.
37. Under state law, most Massachusetts towns and cities have established local conservation commissions. An important function of these bodies is to administer the state Wetlands Protection Act (MGLA Ch. 131, Ch. 40A) which requires any proposal to alter wetlands (defined broadly) to apply to the local conservation commission, which issues an "order of conditions" pursuant to a public hearing, regulating how the proposed project should be conducted to minimize harm to wetland resources and services.
38. Robert Zimmerman, executive director of the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA), in personal communication with author, Newton, Massachusetts, 1 February 2006.
39. CRWA news release, 15 February 2005.
40. R. Glennon, Water Follies (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2002), 109-11.
41. For more on the Boston Harbor cleanup, see E. J. Dolin, "Boston Harbor's Murky Political Waters," Environment 34, no. 6 (July/August 1992): 6-15, 34-39.
42. R. Zimmerman Jr., "Put It in Our Backyard: Water, Science and Sustainable Development," River Voices: Newsletter of the River Network 15, no. 3 and 4 (2005).
43. See W. M. Alley, "Tracking U.S. Groundwater: Reserves for the Future?" Environment 48, no. 3 (April 2006): 10-25.
44. Thompson Design Group, Inc./EcoPlan, Buffalo Bayou and Beyond: Visions, Strategies, Actions for the 21st Century (Houston: Buffalo Bayou Partnership, 2002), 3.
45. A. Olson and A. Tuley, "The Future of Houston's Buffalo Bayou," unpublished working paper prepared for the Ecological Cities Project, University of Massachusetts Amtierst, 1 September 2004.
46. S. Johnson, "Co-Production of Public and Civic Actions: A Case Study of Citizen Participation in the Johnson Creek Watershed," unpublished paper presented at International Rivers Symposium, Brisbane, Australia, September 2005.
47. M. Bussard, "Stories from the 'Shed,'" Within Your Reach: Newsletter of the Johnson Creek Watershed Council, Fall 2005.
48. Johnson, note 39 above.
49. Johnson, note 39 above, page 281.
50. When the city proposed to fill the slough for parking in the 1980s, naturalist Mike Houck and others posted homemade notices declaring it to be a wildlife refuge, and in due course it was so designated by the city.
51. See note 26 above.
52. Lubell, Schneider, Scholz, and Mete note 22 above, page 148.