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Session Guide

60-Minute Education Session

SUN-A01: Grand Junction: Climate-Crisis Resiliency, Stormwater Management, Riparian Corridor Reparation, meets Social Overlay

Sunday, October 29, 2023
9:00am – 10:00am CT
1.00 PDH, LA CES/HSW, AICP, FL, NY/HSW

Following a 500-year storm event, Westfield, IN, made the strategic decision to layer climate crisis response, stormwater management, and riparian corridor reparation with social overlay. This Quaker-founded Midwest town reinforced identity in a forward-thinking infrastructure strategy, allowing development of a burgeoning downtown core while ameliorating historic and damaging environmental decisions.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Appreciate an approach to infrastructure through the lens of three different points of view : 1) aspirations for urban development opportunities, 2) ecological resiliency, and 3) identity-rich, seasonal programming.
  • Discover how 19th- and 20th-century development decisions negatively informed riparian corridors, and how these sensitive landscapes can be re-written to meet 21st-century needs for resiliency and climate crisis response.
  • Delve into the complexities of riparian corridor reparation, stream bank stabilization, the use of Natural Channel Design methodology, and the selection/distribution of horticulture to successfully rewrite rivers and creeks.
  • Learn how to work through cross-disciplinary and sometimes competing goals to overlay resiliency infrastructure, development goals, and identity to positively inform civic spaces.