Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance: Design Implications of an Urban Case Demonstration in Baltimore, Maryland

This research-design thesis explores the implementation of Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance (RSC) as a retrofit of an existing impervious drainage system in a small catchment in the degraded Jones Falls watershed in Baltimore City. An introduction to RSC is provided, placing its development within a theoretical context of novel ecosystems, biomimicry and Nassauer and Opdam’s (2008) model of landscape innovation. The case site is in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood on City-owned land adjacent to rowhomes, open space and an access point to a popular wooded trail along a local stream. The design proposal employs RSC to retrofit an ill-performing stormwater system, simultaneously providing a range of ecological, social and economic services; water quantity, water quality and economic performance of the proposed RSC are quantified. While the proposed design is site-specific the model is adaptable for retrofitting other small-scale impervious drainage systems, providing a strategic tool in addressing Baltimore City’s stormwater challenges.

Regenerative Aquaculture: Designing for Resilience of the Chesapeake Tidewater

The Chesapeake Bay is out of balance. As the effects of decades of overharvesting, overdevelopment, and pollution have taken their toll, tidewater communities are confronted with a loss of culture, livelihood, and the environment in which they live. This thesis seeks to reframe the problem of regeneration of community and environment, through the use of resilient design. Resilient design is the process of designing for an uncertain at risk future. Through resilient design, architecture and aquaculture can be combined with food culture to foster stewardship of place. This thesis will explore interconnectedness of tidewater food culture, the waterman culture, aquaculture, and regenerative design in an effort to generate a holistic solution. The final product will consist of a methodology of planning for resilience at a framework scale, and will also propose an architectural solution that combines educational facilities with commercial aquaculture, to foster stewardship and regeneration in the Chesapeake Tidewater.