Improving Urban Watershed Health Through Suburban Infill Design and Development

Up to 75 percent of new construction between 2000 and 2030 may â be redirected inward or into more compact, mixed-use suburban developments (Nelson, 2004). If this assertion is even nearly true, and if the goals of the Clean Water Act are to be met in the next generation of American cities, then we must find feasible and effective ways of improving urban watershed health using retrofit and infill development as a primary means. The aim of this study is to evaluate the patterns and approaches of suburban infill developments in order to determine which methods and extents are deemed capable of improving the health, sustainability and natural services of urban streams and watersheds. Water is considered to be foundational to urban and suburban sustainability and is treated as a primary indicator of overall health and sustainability within the context of this study.

This thesis presents three pilot studies that examine urban watershed health using a single case as a vehicle. The studies, in the order they are presented, are: 1) Form- analyzing the relationship between landuse patterns and imperviousness, 2) Planning- relating questions of development scale planning and design to natural and cultural systems at the watershed scale and 3) Valuation- illustrating three possibilities for determining the economic value of improving urban watershed health.