Tours (Wednesday Afternoon - 1:00-4:30pm;
Registration Fee: $20)
Tour A - Villanova Urban Stormwater SCM Research and Demonstration Park
Villanova University has worked with the Pennsylvania DEP to build a Stormwater SCM (BMP) Park. The Park has been the host of many educational tours and also plays an important role in advancing stormwater management practices in Pennsylvania and beyond. The purpose of the BMP Park is to serve as both an example of successful BMP implementation, and as a research facility to quantify the performance of the BMPs. The goal is that through demonstration and research the BMP Park will help innovative stormwater practices become commonplace in engineering design. Currently the park consists of a stormwater wetlands, several bio-infiltration and bioretention raingardens, an infiltration trench, porous concrete and asphalt sites, rain barrells an ET study area and a rooftop garden.
Philadelphia Water Department Tours! Join us for one of two bus tours of innovative green projects that manage stormwater in Philadelphia’s urban areas. These projects demonstrate the tools the Philadelphia Water Department is endorsing in its newest and boldest plan: Green City, Clean Waters.
Tour B - Reinventing the Neighborhood (PWD)
First you'll visit Greensgrow Farm which is located on a city block that was once the site of a galvanized steel plant, the land has been revitalized and repurposed into a thriving farm that now produces flowers and produce in hydroponically or in raised beds. They have reconnected city dwellers with rural food producers and promote the greening of Philadelphia's homes by installing green roofs and rain barrels. They have also begun using bio-diesel fuel to fuel their trucks.
Next is The Big Green Block initiative which includes the Shissler Recreation Center, Platinum LEED certified Kensington CAPA High School and the surrounding streets. Come and observe stormwater tree trenches, rain gardens, a porous pavement parking lot, underground detention and infiltration facilities, green roofs and rainwater cisterns.
Last but not least is Liberty Lands Park which is the product of a grassroots neighborhood effort to transform an industrial brownfield into a vital community green space. The park boats a performance stage backed by a rain garden, community gardens, and 180 trees of varying species.
Tour C - Urban LIDs (PWD)
Experience South Philadelphia's Herron Playground's porous asphalt basketball court which has a subsurface infiltration system installed beneath the basketball court area to manage stormwater runoff. In addition, a porous safety surface made from recycled tires, a rain garden and new trees were installed on this formerly tree-less site.
Move on to Columbus Square Park and Philadelphia's first green street stormwater planters, which manage street and sidewalk runoff through beautiful planters.
The next stop will be the 800 block of Percy St., Philadelphia's 1st porous Green Street. If time permits, you will travel to the Greenfield School where a parking lot has been transformed into a green schoolyard, including the installation of a stormwater management system with two indigenous Pennsylvania woodland forest rain gardens, porous pavement, permeable recycled play surface, an agriculture zone, and solar shading.
Tour D - Stroud Preserve and Stroud Water Research Center
319 NPS National Monitoring Site Tour
(Please note that this tour leaves earlier than the other tours. This tour will leave the hotel by 11:00am).
The tour will first visit the Stroud Preserve, 600 acres of field and forest owned by the Natural Lands Trust and located near West Chester PA, approximately 45 minutes from Philadelphia.
This stop will feature:
(1) A Three-zone Riparian Forest Buffer planted in 1992. Nutrient and sediment removal by the buffer were tracked for 15 years in a paired watershed study under the National Monitoring Program. Zone 3 includes a level-lip spreader to disperse concentrated runoff from grassed waterways, distributing sheet flow to the buffer.
(2) Other experiments in riparian reforestion, focusing on weed abatement and deer exclusion.
(3) Ongoing restoration of stream and riparian zone created by removal of a dam earlier in 2011.
Another 20-minute bus ride will take us to the Stroud Water Research Center, internationally recognized for its research in streams and rivers.
This stop will feature:
(1) Welcome and overview of major research projects by director Dr. Bernard Sweeney
(2) Tour of laboratory and field installations, highlighting newly developed real-time data acquistion systems.
Updated June 1, 2011