Monitoring the performance of green infrastructure for stormwater management in the Chicagoland region

Bio:

Colleen O'Brien is a fourth year PhD Candidate at Northwestern University in Professor Aaron Packman's laboratory. Her research involves the monitoring of green infrastructure for stormwater management and investigates how the type, scale and quality of green spaces impacts their ability to reduce local urban flooding. Prior to Northwestern, Colleen worked in engineering consulting and received her Master's in Water Resource Engineering from Tufts University, where she researched water insecurity in the West Bank, and her Bachelor's in Environmental Engineering and French from the University of Southern California.

Abstract:

Climate change is leading to more extreme precipitation events in the Midwest, which require new ways of managing stormwater, particularly in urban areas. Green infrastructure has become an increasingly popular way of providing additional stormwater storage, as well as supporting urban biodiversity. However, many questions on the performance of green infrastructure still remain. Understanding the impact of the type, scale, and quality of green infrastructure on flood reduction is critical to designing green spaces that will help address the challenge of urban stormwater management.

During this seminar, I will present preliminary results from the monitoring of three green infrastructure projects in the Chicagoland region: Indian Boundary Prairies, the Garfield Park Eco-Orchard, and Cultivate Collective at the Academy for Global Citizenship. Our research at Indian Boundary Prairies investigates the resilience of these ecological systems to inputs of urban runoff. At the Garfield Park Eco-Orchard, we explore how green infrastructure can reduce the burden placed on the drainage system. Cultivate Collective at the Academy for Global Citizenship is an example of using social science and engineering methods to quantify the community benefits of green infrastructure. Developing a better understanding of how these systems perform under various conditions can inform the design and maintenance of future green infrastructure projects, which will be critical to manage increased stormwater due to climate change.