Chicago's Green Alley Program is consistent with Mayor Richard Daley’s desire to make Chicago the greenest city. One factor in the success of the Green Alleys Program is the way in which it was explained so clearly to the public. The major component of that public education is a publication titled The Chicago Green Alley Handbook.
Typically used for off-road pavements that handle a low volume of traffic flow – parking lots, industrial parks, and driveways – porous asphalt pavement has been around for more than 30 years. But only recently, as land values have climbed and rainwater/stormwater regulations have evolved in the United Stated, have so many developers begun to embrace this paving technology.
The West Glendover Stormwater Improvement Project in Lexington, Kentucky is an unusal project that resulted from extraordinary cooperation on the part of all parties involved. Locating a rainwater/stormwater project in an arboretum stopped flooding to nearby homes, enhanced the arboretum's collection of plants, and allowed the public to see a large-scale rain garden.
Rain gardens sound exotic, but they are really a low-tech way to help rain soak in where it falls, replenishing water supplies and reducing pollution in waterways. Roof gardens, on the other hand, have the same goals, but are something you should not try at home without the help of experts. Marcus de la fleur has installed both on his property in the City of Elmhurst, a Chicago suburb.
Rain gardens may have started in Maryland and been developed in Maplewood and Burnsville, MN, but it was Kansas City, MO, that put them on the map of public awareness. The City has implemented a program which has a goal of 10,000 rain gardens by 2010.
The city of Annapolis, a charitable foundation and a landscape architect are working together on building an underground drainage system that stops dirty rainwater from flowing into Spa Creek by filtering it and channeling the results to irrigate the tree and shrubs on the tiny site.
Rainwater management is a major focus of redevelopment in the historic part of City of Racine, Wisconsin. The project planners are looking at a snow-melt system, water-permeable pavement and rain gardens. .
