Sustainable Landscape Construction, Third Edition

Sustainable design and construction will only grow in popularity as our full effect on the environment through building becomes more apparent. Sustainable Landscape Construction is your guide to green design and the challenges and benefits that go with it.  This is a must-have guide for anyone who has interest in this field.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface to the Third Edition

Authorship Changes

Why a New Edition?

What’s New in This Edition?

Who Should Use This Book?

How to Use This Book

Finding Landscapes Along the Information Highway

Acknowledgements

Contacting the Author

Basic Principles: “Sustainability” in Context

What is Sustainability? Politics, Ethics, and Semantics

Sustainability: Convention, Tradition, and Innovation

Landscapes Against Climate Change

Sustainability, Substance, and Style

Rethinking Special Landscape Types for Sustainability

1. Keep Healthy Sites Healthy

What is a Healthy Site?
Take a Role in “Pre-Construction”
Do Your Homework First: Knowledge as Sustainability
Avoid Survey Damage
Minimize Utility damage
Physically Protect Sites During Construction
Preserve Healthy Topsoil
Save Every Possible Existing Tree – Even Just One
Use Appropriate Construction Machinery
Related Design and Planning Issues
Coordination and Follow-Up

2. Heal Injured Soils and Sites

Turn Wastelands to Gardens
Balance the Environmental Costs and Benefits of Restoration
Involve the Community in Site Restoration
Make a Virtue of the Necessity for Landfills
Recognize Agricultural and Rural Restoration
Restore Landscapes Structurally
Restore Damaged Soils On-Site
Restore Regionally Appropriate Vegetation
Restore Forests and Coexist with Wildfire

3. Favor Living, Flexible Materials

Highlight the Benefits of Vegetation
Hold Slopes in Place with BTEC – Biotechnical Erosion Control
Make Vertical Structures “Habitat-able” With Greenwalls
Turn Barren Roof Space Into Greenroofs
Construct for and with Plants
Evaluate Turf: The Green, the Bad, and the Ugly
Count on Plants to Sustain

4. Respect the Waters of Life

Work with Site’s Water Regime
Understand, Protect, and Restore Natural Wetlands
Know the Issues Before Working in or Near Wetlands
Restore Rivers and Streams to Full Health
Collect and Conserve Water
Irrigate Intelligently and Sparingly
Reuse Graywater
Purify Water at Every Opportunity
Test Modern Hardware for Cleaner Piped Stormwater
Let Constructed Wetlands Treat Water

5. Pave Less

Plan and Design to Reduce Paving
Take Advantage of Context-Sensitive Road Design
Use Techniques that Reduce Runoff from Paving
Use Porous Paving Materials
Cool Asphalt with Planting and Albedo

6. Consider Origin and Fate of Materials

The Devil is in the Design
Recall Some Simple Guidelines
Let Reuse Be Re-Inspiration
Use Local, Salvaged, or Recycled Materials
Evaluate Environmental Costs When Choosing Suppliers
Use Sustainably Harvested Renewables
Use Nonrenewable Materials Sparingly
Avoid Toxic Materials
Know General Toxicity Issues by Material Type
Avoid Three Controversial Materials
Prioritize Hazard-Reduction Efforts

7. Know the Costs of Energy Over Time

Understand How Landscape Energy Use is Different
Manage Energy for Machines, Tools, and Labor
Embodied Energy – Why Do We Care?
Use Life-Cycle Costing to Justify Sustainable Design
Apply Guidelines for Landscape Energy Conservation

8. Celebrate Light, Respect Darkness

Respect the Need for Darkness
Talk Lighting – A Brief Glossary
Use Lighting Efficiently
Try Low-Voltage Lighting for Flexibility
Use Solar Lighting
Evaluate Lamp Performance
Join LED Lighting Revolution

9. Quietly Defend Silence

Understand Noise Terminology
Be Aware of Damage Cause by Noise
Don’t Rely on Noise “Barries” in Most Landscapes
Try Noise-Absorbing Materials
Modify Pavement to Reduce Road Noise
Make Noise Invisible
Fight Noise with Noise
Push for Quieter Landscape Tools
Protect “Soundscapes” Through Planning

10. Maintain to Sustain

Know the Resource Costs of Conventional Landscape Maintenance
Plan for Maintainable Spaces
Expect Change
Evaluate Bio-Based Maintenance Products with Care
Apply Integrated Pest Management
Use Fetilizers Sustainably
Don’t Waste On-Site Resources
Consider Alternatives to Mowing
Adapt to Using Native Plants
Manage Large Public Landscapes Hollistically, Too
Evaluate Life-Cycle Costs of Maintenance Options
Use Innovative Funding
Coordinate Design, Construction, and Maintenance

11. Demonstrate Performance, Learn from Failure

Anatomy of a Certification System
Landscape Certification Programs
Better Measures
Landscape Forensics and Learning (or Not) from Failure

Sustaining Principles, Evolving Efforts

Learning from the Landscape: Themes and Strategies

Green Education in Design and Construction

Landscapes as Public Environmental Education

Thinking One Hundred Years Ahead

Notes

Index