The Calumet Region is a convergence of Terra, Aqua, Aer, and Ignis—a layered interplay of industry, community, and nature. Yet, the landscape remains fragmented and increasingly vulnerable to climate change. Industrial parks meet single-family neighborhoods, coyotes roam slag-filled parks, and hardened rivers struggle against a volatile Lake Michigan. Still, Terra, Aqua, and Aer persist—protected dunes, wetlands, and biodiverse habitats offering resilience amid urbanization.
But Ignis—human activity—has disrupted the region’s natural adaptability. Urbanization has weakened soil health, diminished stormwater absorption, and worsened heat islands and air quality, eroding nature’s ability to buffer climatic extremes.
Now, as the region grows warmer, wetter, and more extreme, it must embrace Green Ignis—reimagining human impact as a force for climate adaptation through a Living Nexus that integrates ecological and urban resilience.
WHAT DO HUMANS WANT? WHAT DOES NATURE NEED?
THE LIVING NEXUS
A future Calumet must prioritizing natural processes, adaptive reuse, and the seamless integration of human and ecological systems.
A Green Ignis—one that regenerates rather than depletes—calls for restoring hydrological functions, enhancing biodiversity, and reconnecting fragmented habitats. It envisions flexible land use planning, nature-based
resilience strategies like wind districts and living shorelines, and a commitment to communitydriven adaptation. This transformation must be phased, collaborative, and continuously assessed, ensuring a dynamic, evolving approach that strengthens both ecological and urban resilience over time.
AQUA SYSTEMS
Water has long shaped the Calumet, but climate change is altering its flow, intensity, and risks. Increasing rainfall, cloudbursts, and storms worsen flooding in Altgeld Gardens, Pullman, and East Side, while hotter summers may dry out the land.
Lake Michigan’s water levels swing between extremes, eroding shorelines and stressing infrastructure. Declining ice cover from warmer, rainier winters fuels lake-effect snow, while warming waters trigger algal blooms and freezing floods.
Aqua is now an unpredictable force that demands new approaches to resilience and adaptation.
FLOOD RISK OF CALUMET NEIGHBORHOODS
The historic Aqua-Terra synergy once managed water naturally, but industrialization and urbanization severed those links.
With cloudburst pooling and fluvial flood risk, former wetlands and dynamic rivers have become flood-prone neighborhoods, with risks escalating due to climate change.
Altgeld Gardens, Pullman, and East Side each have their own associated risks.
HISTORIC SHORELINES
APPROX. 3,000 YEARS AGO
APPROX. 4,600 YEARS AGO
APPROX. 11,500 YEARS AGO
ANCESTRAL HYDROLOGY AND MODIFIED WATER
Glaciers and meltwater shaped the ancestral landscape of the region from which sediment transport and ecological succession formed new pre-settlement water landscapes, including Lake Michigan’s predecessors and Illinois’ marshes.
Today, the Calumet’s hydrology is a utilitarian delta with hardscaped edges and disconnected flows that will compound the effects of climate change.
STORM SEVERITY ON THE RISE
The frequency and intensity of severe weather events increases as global temperatures increase. With the exception of extreme cold, the region’s future projections indicate that all climate hazards will increase by 2050.
By the end of the century, the risk of severe winds, tornadoes, extreme heat, and flood hazards will substantially increase. Other conditions, like drought and warmer winters suitable for the spread of invasive species, will also increase for many parts of the Great Lakes.
EAST SIDE
PULLMAN
ALTGELD GARDENS
ancestral lakes glacial ice sheets
freshwater marshes
TERRA SYSTEMS
Terra embraces our planet’s geographical landform systems, which play a vital role in shaping refuge for both human life and biodiversity. This intricate, yet delicate element provides the foundation for ecosystems supporting a variety of living species and organisms. The balance between nature’s systems once thrived, yet is now growing increasingly strained due to human influence. A great example is the glacial melt which carved the formation of the Great Lakes over the course of thousands of years, resulting in shaping large and rich ecosystems. As human activity continues compromising the stability of these delicate ecosystems due to warming temperatures, the melting of glaciers that helped form these lakes further intensifies environmental shifts.
APPROX. 15,000 YEARS AGO
APPROX. 8,500 YEARS AGO
APPROX. 6,000 YEARS AGO
APPROX. 3,500 YEARS AGO
SHIFTING ECOLOGICAL PATTERNS
The past decade revealed a significant shift in hardiness zones throughout the United States. At a local scale such as the state of Illinois, this means that it will not only impact native perennial species we see, but also disrupt wildlife migration patterns, leading to the appearance of new species. With these changes in mind, it is encouraged for planning methods to adapt to these ecological shifts through supportive habitats that were once influenced by natural forces, but have now been altered through human activity.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone defines geographical areas where certain plant species will thrive baseed on average annual minimum temperatures.
LAKE MICHIGAN
LAKE HURON
LAKE SUPERIOR LAKE ONTARIO
LAKE ERIE
AER SYSTEMS
URBAN HEAT ISLAND RISK TO CALUMET
Recent decades have revealed an ever increasing Urban Heat Island effect, straining the ability for local communities, such as Pullman, East Side, and Altgeld Gardens, to remain not only functional, but habitable.
Caused by the past industrial use of the Calumet region these communities are just a few of those struggling to provide relief for their residents during the warmer months.
Areas that would typically be sought after, greenspaces or local waterways, offer little to no relief in this instance due to the landfills hidden beneath the entire region, limiting the cooling effect that one seeks. In a twisting of the strings, it’s revealed that some of the most imposing landfill forms trap the day’s heat long into the night, decreasing the relief the community violently seeks.
Researchers suggest that the root source of Aer, the global jetstream, may even be impacted by climate change. Region-wide “blocking” events, such as those that caused the historic Chicago 1995 Heat Wave, may not become more frequent, but could last longer. This not only affects extreme heat events, which is a response to a high pressure system “blocking” the jetstream, but could mean longer periods of heavy rainfall, an event that can occur with a low pressure “block”.
East Side
Pullman
Altgeld Gardens
PREVALENT WIND PATTERN WEST COAST INFLUENCE
HURRICANE SANDY
HURRICANE ISAAC
DEFINING A NEW RIVER EDGE
A LIVING FLOODPLAIN
The Calumet River is reimagined through a 1/4-mile buffer that restores the floodplain function, removes industry from the water’s edge, and introduces ecologies of repair. Wetlands, prairies, and forests form a layered landscape that cools, filters, and connects. A new trail system invites public access and stewards a future where biodiversity and community belong side by side.
CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS
Softened riverbanks becomes sites of filtration, slowing, and cleaning stormwater while providing essential habitat. These wetlands absorb the river’s floodwaters and support aquatic life that at this threshold.
RIVER CORRIDOR TRAILS
A connective thread, the trail system invites communities back to the water’s edge. Widing through ecological zones, it fosters stewardship, movement, and an intimate experience of a remade river.
REMAKING THE REGION
RIPARIAN FORESTS
A canopy of diverse tree species provides shade, wind filtration, and long-term carbon storage. This quiet, rooted zone supports a layered biodiversity, from canopy to understory.
PRAIRIE GRASSLANDS
Native grasses stabilize soils and create open sightlines across the river landscape. This zone provides vital pollinator habitat and reclaims a prairie ecology disrupted by existing development.
Natured shaped the Calumet Region. Ignis hardened the Calumet Region.
Green Ignis remakes the Calumet Region.
REIMAGINING THE CALUMET RIVER
INNOVATE GATHER EDGE CONDITIONS
RENATURE + CONNECT
Where one can innovate to develop a green future, gather with friends and family, and connect with the river, nature, and surrounding communities.
The Calumet River’s potential as a climate mitigation partner has not been fully realized. The hardening of the riverbanks will make the effects of urban heat and local flooding more extreme in a changing climate.
Innovative solutions for wind corridors that harness the river’s natural cooling, along with strategies that map and divert stormwater into new catchments, can help reestablish the river’s role as a dynamic spine for urban resilience.
Average daytime temperatures mapped for industrial, residential, and green zones
• canopy expansion areas
• reducing cooling energy use
• cooling priority zones
Wind redirection strategies to reduce blocklevel and regional temperatures
• prevailing wind alignments
• symbiosis with shade and vegetation
• wind redirection tunnels
Areas vulnerable to stormwater overflow and riverine surges
• support flood-prone communities
• restore the flood plain
• alleviate overwhelmed infrastructure
Mapping microcatchments for future stormwater absorption, diversion, and reuse strategies
• water retention sites
• local rain garden systems
PLANNING FOR URBAN COOLING
AN ADAPTIVE WIND DISTRICT MOSAIC
THE STRATEGY
To Plan for Urban Cooling is to weave moisture and wind into the urban fabric, counteracting the heat of Calumet’s hardscapes. Cooling strategies help restore balance by integrating tree canopies, permeable surfaces, and water features that help dissipate thermal extremes.
Green corridors and blue infrastructure work together, a partnership between terra, aqua, and aer that allows cities to breathe and circulate air effectively. The plan helps reduce disparities of heat exposure and air quality, ensuring that all communities benefit from cooler habitable spaces.
In doing so, it fosters a climate-responsive urbanism where natural elements are not ornamental, but are essential in mitigating the intensifying effects of a warming world.
SITE INTERVENTIONS AND MATERIALS TOOLKIT
SCALES OF ADAPTATION
The Calumet’s reshaped terrain becomes the foundation for a new kind of urban climate system. These elevated landscapes redirect prevailing winds, chennling breezes across neighborhoods, wetlands, and renatured corridors to ease urban heat.
By planning with the contours of post-industrial land, wind district emerge at the community scale, with pronounced benefits at the block level. Together with green corridors and water capture systems, these formations create a living infrastructure that cools the Calumet.
Desealing Hardscapes Solar
PLANNING FOR RENATURING
AN ADAPTIVE POST-INDUSTRIAL MOSAIC
THE STRATEGY
To Plan for Renaturing is to facilitate the transformation of poor and harmful land uses into vibrant and adaptive spaces. For post-industrial zones, desealing hardscapes and clearing contaminants is a first step in reconnecting systems of terra, aqua, and aer.
Renaturing aims to heal the land, enhancing the quality of air and water by starting with the health of soils. Brown grids help anchor bioremediation, allowing for above-ground vegetation, species, and activity to develop synergistically, replacing polluting industries from a bygone ignis era.
This plan activates a Living Nexus, connecting the community with its ecosystem through phased adaptive reuse, pollution containment, and assets for biodiversity–fostering new spaces for resilience for the climate challenges of the future.
SITE INTERVENTIONS AND MATERIALS TOOLKIT
ECOTONAL ENVIRONMENTS
Renaturing along edge conditions is an opportunity for ecotone growth. Where land meets water, diverse habitats emerge, supporting marsh vegetation and riparian species. These adaptive ecologies stabilize soils, filter water, and build resilience along the river’s edge.
Desealing Hardscapes
PLANNING FOR WILDLIFE BIODIVERSITY
ADAPTIVE HABITAT MOSAIC
THE STRATEGY
To Plan for Wildlife Biodiversity is to adapt to changes of new wildlife species and support them through a variety of habitats. The shift in ecological regions and hardiness zones will impact animal migration patterns, highlighting the importance of enhancing and strengthening the support for biodiversity.
A variety of habitat strategies aim to adapt to different landscapes supporting different species types from insects, mammals, birds, and fish. In doing so, a rich biodiverse landscape will emerge, allowing species to thrive in their related habitat or use as a resting site as they continue to migrate.
As the future poses more climatic challenges, this plan aims to support nature while coexisting with human activity, using it as an asset towards further nature-based adaptive strategies.
In a future where pollinators and beneficial insects seek refuge underground due to the effects of climate change, new adaptive underground networks emerge. Bioengineered, bioluminescent vegetation allows the health of plants to be determined based on the intensity of their root glow. Communication between mycorrhizal fungi and insects help with stabilizing the health of vegetation, contributing to a balanced soil ecosystem.
To Plan for a Living Shoreline is to plan for a dynamic and resilient environment. One that blends terra and aqua with a new riparian zone, reinforced by deep-rooted plants and diverse wildlife, helping to curb the effects of erosion.
Living Shorelines seeks to bring in a breath of fresh air, sequestering numerous times more carbon than its forested counterparts, while simultaneously filtering pollutants from the once industrial waterways.
This plan bridges a forgotten connection with the community, waterways, and nature; once lost to time and left to sink to the waterbed, yet brought back to prepare for the climatic challenges of the coming centuries.
SITE INTERVENTIONS AND MATERIALS TOOLKIT
Establishing a living shoreline along the river corridor grants newly acquired public access to community members. In a monumental shift away from privatization, the reestablished river edge not only returns the river to nature, but to the public as well, with communal trails and park features bringing the wetlands to local residents’ backyards.
TOWARDS A GREEN IGNIS
AN ADAPTIVE INDUSTRIAL CORRIDOR MOSAIC
NATURE AS A DESIGN PARTNER
The Calumet’s future demands a new relationship between people and nature, envisioning a landscape where biotechnology and natural systems co-create the foundations of a climate-adapted 22nd century.
Today, the Calumet’s Industry, Community, and Natural remnants form a vulnerable mosaic shaped by generations of extraction and modification. Yet within this mosaic lies extraordinary resilience. By establishing a Living Nexus, we can repair and reconnect systems by thinking of nature as a design partner.
EMERGING INTERVENTIONS AND MATERIALS TOOLKIT
By the 22nd century, innovations in material sciences and industrial processes will encourage new built environments to take shape, including:
Bioluminescent Flora becomes a biomarker of ecosystem health, illuminating the Calumet
Biotech Incubators modernize industrial spaces for green production and specialized research
Modular Warehouses respond to the need of adaptive manufacturing, easily embedding growth and retreat
Community Green Slips establish public access to the Calumet River and its ecological benefits
Solar Pavers embed renewable energy capture into everyday textures, like sidewalks and streets
Circular Economies transform waste streams into new local materials and regenerative products
Living Soil Networks thrive amongst remediated water and land systems, permitting activity like sandponics
