Nature, a Model for Infrastructure

sustainable design. Sustainable design implies making design decisions that could result in less impact on environmental resources (land, water, and air). The aim of the term is not to reduce the quality and extent of environmental resources to the eventual detriment of future generations. Well-researched and reasoned decisions related to design in the environment should maintain or improve air and water quality, preserve or enhance biodiversity, and reduce if not eliminate any adverse environmental impacts such as soil erosion or flooding. Design based on informed thinking can improve the quality of life of the places where people live, work, and recreate. More simply put, I am reminded of the Figure 10.1 Traditional approach to disposing of surface phrase: Think globally, act locally from the Whole rainwater by grading paved surfaces to drain toward an area Earth movement of the 1970s. catch basin. We do not need to be frozen in a state of inaction when we realize the enormity and complexity of the threats from global-scale environmental impacts such as the burning of coal and other fossil fuels. Through the implementation of thoughtful and broadly considered landscape designs that reduce energy demands, positive incremental improvements can make a significant difference. Collectively, incremental improvements can add up to substantial gains. Figure 10.1 shows the traditional approach to storm-water management. A tweak to the design of this way of managing unwanted surface runoff water is an example of how making incremental improvements can lead to solving a larger problem. The surface water could be diverted to the adjacent grassy area and allowed to percolate into the underground aquifer instead of being carried away by an underground storm-water infrastructure system. This “new” approach reduces overall water consumption by reducing the need for irrigation and eliminates the costly construction of an underground storm-water disposal system. Design innovations like this and others are now part of the increasing implementation of green infrastructure: using lessons learned from nature to solve traditional infrastructure needs.

Thinking of nature and natural systems as infrastructure is a concept deeply rooted in historical precedence. Humans, certainly by the time they had evolved from hunter–gatherers to settle and create agricultural communities, worked with nature in establishing their fields and developing the means to irrigate and gather and store water. The systems of gathering and distributing water to irrigate fields cleverly harnessed the natural processes of annual flooding and surface water drainage patterns. Later, the flowing water of rivers and streams was used to power grain-milling apparatus, basically employing gravity flow to power the mill. Rivers and streams were later tapped as a source of energy to power factory equipment in the industrial age. Beginning in the 1970s with the environmental movement and renewed interest in reversing the ills caused by rapid industrialization