On the Sustainability of Development

Today’s Providence Journal has an article summarizing the research of students at Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies on the causes of the historic flooding in Rhode Island last spring.  Their conclusion is that the flooding was human induced, following centuries of deforestation and urbanization along the floodplains of the affected areas.

                Coincidentally, yesterday I attended a workshop hosted by RIDEM and CRMC on the new Stormwater regulations, which have been designed to minimize both flooding impacts and environmental degradation from storm water runoff from new impervious area.  The workshop began with a presentation from NOAA’s Northeast River Forecast Center on the same topic - the causes of the March 2010 flooding.  The presenter reported the same conclusion…the flooding was precipitated by a series of storm events but was primarily caused by urbanization in the floodplains.

                The town that I grew up in New Jersey often had flooding in the low-lying areas of the downtown until the Army Cory of Engineers came in and widened and channelized the beautiful stream that ran through the town park.  It eliminated the flooding but destroyed the steam habitat.  I remember hearing as a young girl that the Native Americans in that region avoided this low-lying area because they knew of the flooding potential.

                At the storm water workshop yesterday, there was a presentation of two possible subdivision scenarios on a real parcel in Smithfield.  The original design had an average lot size of 3.3 acres with 3200 linear feet of road.  The alternative design reflected the avoidance of significant environmental impacts by reducing lot size and road length.  Instead of an average 3+ acre lots, the house sites would be about half that size.  The resulting reconfiguration of the subdivision would lead to the preservation of over 50 acres of open space in one large area.  The presenter commented, however, that the marketability of the smaller lots would likely be difficult because they no longer were “estate” size lots.



Suburban Sprawl



                Rhode Island is already one of the most urbanized states in the country.  As long as what little undeveloped land we have is continued to be developed and people continue to demand large lot sizes, our natural undisturbed areas will be lost forever.  Isn’t it somewhat ironic that “green” home construction is the big buzz word in the high-end residential market?  How often are these “green” homes built in areas where precious habitat has been destroyed in order to accommodate this development?  How green is that?

                It is easy to blame the introduction of plants from Europe and Asia for the loss of native plant species.  But as Peter del Tredici says in his book, Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast, “spontaneous plants have become the de facto native vegetation of the city”.   As much as we tout the inherent adaptability of native plants to our area, there must be a reason why introduced plants have managed to out-compete natives in so many areas.  Could it be because disturbed areas bear little resemblance to the native habitat and environment which once existed?

                If we are interested in a really “green” effort, it would seem that we need to make some hard decisions about where we live and how much land we preserve as habitat for our native flora and fauna.  It is really the only truly sustainable solution to preserving what we care about.