Low-impact housing: River Rouge, Michigan

Abstract

Low-impact development (LID) is of great interest to planners, designers, governmental authorities, scientists, and concerning citizens. However, assessing the effectiveness of proposed spatial treatments for housing, commercial, industrial, and transportation projects remains an evolving and continuing process. In this study, researchers examined a post-industrial environmental setting near the mouth of the River Rouge River in the greater Detroit metropolitan area to develop the site for housing employing landscape-based composition approaches. The investigation assessed landscape treatments to measure general environmental quality and stormwater runoff quality. The results indicated that a landscape-based housing development had significantly better visual/environmental quality (p ≤ 0.0001) and that a bioretention water treatment area combined with a constructed wetland was able to improve water quality, removing approximately 96.3% of phosphorus.

Keywords:

• landscape metrics
• landscape architecture
• environmental psychology
• urban design
• sustainable housing
• water quality
• landscape engineering

ORCID

Jon Bryan Burley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9747-440X

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mingzhao Wang

Mingzhou Wang achieved her bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from China Agricultural University, 2012, and finished her master’s degree in Environmental Design at Michigan State University in January 2013. Her team was awarded second prize in 2013 Campus Rainworks Challenge. She presently works at Ellerbee Environmental and Technical Company in Charleston, West Virginia.

Rory Quentin Hyde

Rory Quentin Hyde, long-time resident of the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan, and Graduate of Michigan State University is currently working toward licensure in Landscape Architecture at a small private-sector firm in Palm Beach, Florida. His research interests include: ecological restoration, environmental psychology, naturalistic storm-water management techniques, and therapeutic landscapes.

Jon Bryan Burley

Dr Jon Bryan Burley is an associate professor of landscape architecture and Fellow in ASLA. He has published over 350 articles, book chapters, and abstracts. He has been in higher education as an academic for 41 years.

April Allen

Dr April Allen is a faculty member in the Interior Design Program in the MSU School of Planning, Design and Construction. She graduated from the College of Architecture at Virginia Tech with a PhD in Environmental Design and Planning in 2004. Currently, Dr Allen teaches History of Interiors and a course in historic preservation.

Trisha Machemer

Dr Trish Machemer is an associate professor of landscape architecture. She has a PhD in Resource Management from MSU, and master’s degrees in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Michigan.