Water cleansing project, design, planning book earn ASLA honors

A master plan created by Texas A&M graduate landscape architecture students that showcases “green” methods to cleanse storm water runoff and a [book] (https://islandpress.org/book/the-ecological-design-and-planning-reader) of ecological design and planning essays compiled by Forster Ndubisi, head of the [Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning] (http://laup.arch.tamu.edu) , captured awards at a 2015 convention.

The awards were presented during the 2015 American Society of Landscape Architects’ Texas Chapter meeting in Galveston.

The master plan, which captured the Texas ASLA’s Student Design Merit Award, features training and exhibition facilities that demonstrate low impact development — a term that describes ways of reducing and cleansing stormwater runoff by utilizing green spaces, native landscaping, and various other “green” techniques instead of complex, costly engineering strategies.

The facilities, which are proposed additions to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Soil and Erosion Field Laboratory on the university’s Riverside Campus, would allow the lab to function simultaneously as a research lab and continuing education center for designers and engineers.

Students proposed a series of teaching stations including two green walls, a series of bioswales — drainage ditches containing vegetation or compost that remove silt and pollution from stormwater — and a walking trail that features native plants.

The plan also contains demonstration areas including a green roof, xeriscaping, areas where erosion control techniques are used and a system for using stormwater in the sites’ green spaces and restrooms.

Students David Danielson, Siman Ning, Bitong Yang, Yue Yao, Yixun Zhang and Jinglin Zhao created the plan in a spring 2013 studio led by Galen Newman and Ming-Han Li, professors in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning.

In another 2015 award, the Texas ASLA honored Ndubisi’s collection of essays, “The Ecological Design and Planning Reader.” The book is collection of scholarly works including theory, methods and exemplary practice, spanning 150 years, from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden 1854” to an investigation of ecological planning in The Woodlands, Texas.

“The collection provides students, scholars, researchers and practitioners with a solid foundation for understanding the relationship between human systems and the natural environment,” states the book’s publisher, Island Press. “Concerted efforts to balance human use with ecological concerns are needed now more than ever, as humanity experiences rapid global urbanization, with intensified pressures on the natural environment to accommodate people’s daily needs for food, work, shelter and recreation.”

Ndubisi concludes the collection with a hopeful look forward, suggesting an agenda for future research and analysis in the field.

He has also penned “ [Ecological Planning: A Historical and Comparative Synthesis] (http://www.amazon.com/Ecological-Planning-Historical-Comparative-Contemporary/dp/0801868017) ,” “Planning Implementation Tools and Techniques: A Resource Book for Local Governments” and “Public Policy and Land Use in Georgia: A Concise Reference Book.”

In addition to specializing in ecological design and planning, Ndubisi also focuses on community design, growth management and interdisciplinary design education.

He earned a Ph.D. in Regional Planning & Resource Development at the University of Waterloo in 1987, a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph in 1982 and a Bachelor of Science in Zoology/Ecology at the University of Ibadan in 1977.