Day 2 of the Green Infrastructure Conference

Seems fitting that I am writing this exactly one week after having attended this day of the conference. Getting back into the jist of winter term here on campus was a complete whirlwind, which is why I did not get a chance to write. So I am sorry but hopefully you will enjoy this post just the same! :) 

Now to get down to business! Day 1 mostly consisted of Science and Technology subjects, while this day was filled with talks on the management of green infrastructure and practice and policy of green infrastructure. I was quite surprised by the sheer amount of topics that were presented on green infrastructure. While talking to fellow conference members the general consensus was that the broadness of the conference was refreshing. The large amount if subject matter allowed for various minds in different fields to think and discuss the wide range of topics that were being presented. When there is an opportunity for a melting pot of minds to come together, shared knowledge occurs between people from other places around the country and the world. Dialogue emerges about similar and even different issues, allowing for a lot of ideas to be suggested, discussed and even problem-solved. This was really inspiring for me to be around because so much effort was being put into such an important project! I could also sense a genuine feeling of ease in the air when we all sat down to lunch. This group of conference go-ers had now been with the others for a full day and a half and felt comfortable joining into conversations and discussions about a variety of different topics. I felt included and most of all heard, which was a really nice change!

I would say that this day of the conference was easier for me to follow in terms of information that was presented. This was also the day when we saw all of the progress that had been made through green infrastructure, which was really cool to see. Places like New York City, Miami, and Philadelphia were spoken about, but also smaller cities like Lafayette. And everyone had similar and different ways of approaching the implementation of green infrastructure. I only wish that there had been more time for questions. That was probably the most interesting thing to hear, the responses and questions from the other participants. This really showed a true sense of wanting to understand why choices and decisions were made. 

In general, I am so happy that I found this conference and was able to listen and meet people in this field of study. Even though green infrastructure was not something that I was entirely interested in before the confence, I feel better about being more informed on the topic and now understand how important green infrastructure is to our urban development. I hope each of you reading this feels a little more informed on the topic of green infrastructure as well. Thank you for reading.

Much Love,

Taylor

Day 1 of the Green Infrastructure Conference

Well the day has finally come, going to my first college conference! I worked long and hard last semester to be able to find this conference, figure out the rates, and get the trip and registration covered through my school! SUCCESS! 

So if you don't know already, green infrastructure has to do with how our urban areas deals with water flow and quality. One of the major topics is storm water management. Storms can be a huge source of pollution. This is because as soon as it begins to rain, water flows towards the storm sewers. And that is what we want to happen or else there would be large scale flooding. But not just water is flowing into the sewer system, oil and gas from the roads, garbage, pesticides and more is also being discharged into the sewer systems. Though, when our storm drains get overwhelmed, which in really heavy downpours, large amounts of rain in one day, or hurricane Sandy means a lot of flooding. When this flooding happens water quality of different rivers, lakes, and estruaries can get very polluted with the things mentioned above. So green infrastructure is thinking of innovative ways to mitigate and manage urban storm water runoff. Examples of these ideas are rain barrels, cisterns, rain gardens, reducing impervious surfaces, and others. By using these different techniques the hope is that there is a reduction in the amount of polluted runoff.

Anywho, after 10 pages of written notes, I feel a like I learned a lot more about green infrastructure then I ever had before. I now know what we have accomplished thus far, where we can learn from our mistakes and do better, and what the future could possibly hold. Today was the presentations on Science & Technology topics, which in some cases information presented went over way my head (I feel as though I was the only undergrad there, I could be wrong) 

Overall, my top three presentations were A Programmic Approach to Green Infrastructure Investment, Human Health and Well-Being Co-Benefits: Creating Multi-Tasking Green Infrastrucutre Landscapes, and Alternative Greenspace Designs Affect Arthropods and Their Fucntions Within an Urban Landscspe. The first two presentations I mentioned had a lot to do with understanding that there needs to be a multidimensional approach when it comes to focusing on this paricular topic. We cannot just rely on the engineers, forest ecologists, or the government. Instead, we need to reach out to all of these people and begin to work together. The second presentation went more into how greenspaces affect us as humans. In general, how humans could benefit overall from these green infrastructure projects though active living, productivity, and wellness. The third presentation I brought up started off this way and then digressed to the research of the presenter which was quite interesting. She used spiders to determine whether or not vacant plots of land in Cleveland, OH were contaminated based on lead levels. There was still a lot of work and research to be done, but the hypothesis was quite fascinating.

So this is just a brief synopsis of my day (I wanted to get it all down before I forgot, and I may be procrastinating from my homework but don't tell my family ;) ) I hope you learned something from this too! 

Much Love,

Taylor