Topic: Civil & Architectural Engineering
Download (336) times
Last Download at Tuesday 15th of May 2012 02:43:57 AM
Landscape Design Objectives
Provides an overview of landscape planning and design, an integral part of transportation project development. The chapter provides guidance on landscape objectives, corridor considerations, design, plant material section, and protection/preservation techniques. The chapter also describes the project documentation typically required for landscape elements.
The goal of roadway landscape design is to integrate the road into the landscape context. This goal is guided by three objectives: (1) protection of natural and cultural resources, (2) restoration and rehabilitation of landscapes damaged or compromised by transportation improvements, and (3) enhancement of the corridor such that it becomes not merely a functional facility, but a community asset. Achieving these objectives involves evaluating the features of the corridor, and the corridor as a whole, to determine project impacts and how to best integrate the facility into the larger community and environmental context.
When impacts to the landscape are unavoidable, project design should, to the extent feasible, seek to restore or repair landscapes damaged by construction. For natural systems, the intent of such restoration is not merely to replace lost elements, but to replace specific lost functions. This may mean restoring habitat, water buffers, edge systems, hydrologic connections and soil functions. Streetscape restoration, like ecological restoration, involves more than simply replacing individual elements that have been lost. Therefore, the overall character of the street context must be evaluated in project planning and restored to the extent feasible.
Biotechnical stabilization integrates plant material with layered geogrid reinforced systems, riprap, and/or gabion systems. This method provides the benefits of bioengineered vegetative systems with the more predictable benefits of non-living structures and measures. The addition of deeply rooting plant material to the stabilization system can lead to longer term stability than is provided by strictly structural solutions. Further, the addition of vegetation provides ecological/habitat value, improves aesthetics, and reduces heat, glare, slope runoff amounts and rates, ice buildup and potential movement of structural elements over time.
Source: www.mhd.state.ma.us
Related PDF Files
Comments for Landscape Design Objectives