Live Blog: Potential for LEED-ND to Curb Sprawl in NJ

Exploring the Potential for LEED-ND to Curb Sprawl in New Jersey
The Spring 2009 Environmental Geomatics Lecture
John Hasse, PhD
Rowan University

Part I: Patterns of Land Development in NJ

How do you know sprawl when you see it?
One person's sprawl is another person's American Dream.
Most densely populated state
Still increasing population, but the rate is slowing down a little
Does that mean that development is slowing down?
Using Google Earth, Dr. Hasse illustrated land use change patterns and showed that new development in a 16 year period was equal to the total land area of Bergen, Hudson, Passaic and Essex Counties combined.

He projects that in August 2008 we crossed the line where forest was the largest land use in NJ, to where Urban is now the largest!

The basic numbers on loss of forests and wetlands and gains in development are on the CRSSA Landscape Change web page.



He encouraged students to go to the NJ State Atlas website to get some other ways to look at the landscapes of New Jersey.


Part II: Can LEED-ND help with NJ Sprawl?

LEED-ND is the USGNC's new LEED measure for Neighborhood Development. While LEED has been around for buildings (like the Comcast building in Philly - the world's tallest green building) it is pretty new for developments. It includes firm requirements, like not building on wetlands, and some things you can do to get points, like affordable rental housing. It also requires at least 7 houses per acre and rewards transit, energy efficient buildings.

Dr. Hasse used Rowan Boulevard in Glassboro as a case study. This is a redevelopment of a deteriorating town center driven by the school, meant to help the town. Technically it would be ineligible because of an existing stream. But he proceeded to explore some other measures. The site avoided T&E species habitat, had more than 55% of front doors within a walking distance of a bus stop, connected to a bike path, and had dwelling units close to schools.

New novel about FLW

Monday's Leonard Lopate show included an interview with the author of a new novel about Frank Lloyd Wright. T. C. Boyle's The Women explores Wright's life by looking at him through the eyes of 4 women who loved him. Wright's personal life was almost always a mess, but it was in part due to how he tried to live as creatively as he designed. like his design work, it may have also reflected an inability to unerstand the perspectives of others around him.

Making the most of Places and Spaces

With the new semester well underway, people are starting to get a little more serious about using this blog as a resource. So, this seemed like a good time to rehash an old posting offering a few quick thoughts about how to take advantage of the Places and Spaces blog:

• Archival materials - I use the blog as a place to drop materials that are meant to be useful resources for quite some time. Plus, after last year's soils lecture I probably posted something that might still be helpful this year. To help you find them, there is a search bar in the upper left corner and I also tag some long-term Resource of the Day type materials as Resources.
• Places and Spaces Map - One of the more unusual features of the blog is that I try to map some of the places I write about. You will sometimes see a note at the end of a post that actually labels it as (Mapped) which is one way that I let you know it is mapped. But, if you hop straight into the map you'll often find links back to the blog posts, so that it is like a two-way street.
• Lecture reports - For many of our guest lectures I am essentially live blogging the presentations. It isn't meant as lecture notes, but random thoughts that may or may not accurately reflect on what was said. I often seek out online graphics that I wanted to study more than I could during the lecture, or additional reference materials on the topic. Many of them (but not all) are tagged Common Lecture, which is the RU LA Department's weekly lecture. Recent examples include: Tom Woltz, Mason White, and Richard Alomar.
• 3 Landscapes - both a silly parlor game and a serious list to consider. We ask many of our guests this simple question: please name your 3 favorite examples of landscape architecture that you have ever visited. They get posted individually, mapped, and eventually added to a composite list.
• Options - Environmental Planning and Design is a major that is comprised of 4 distinct Options or degree paths: Landscape Architecture, Landscape Industry, Environmental Planning and Environmental Geomatics. Many posts are tagged with one of the 4 labels so that students can quickly seek out posts of interest to their specific Option.
• Class lectures and test hints - Both for my classes (like JrStudio, IntGeo, EnvPlan, AdvGeo) and the classes with which I interact (like EnvGeo and EDA) I like to drop links, news, follow-up, notes, and test hints on the blog so that students can use this as a meaningful supplement to the class materials.

I know that we have visitors from all around the planet. But since the blog is kept more as resource for our current students that anyone else, I apologize if some of the features seem a little parochial. I entertain any suggestions for changes (easy changes) that make a difference.

USGS maps to cost more

No sooner do I tell the students how cheap the maps are, then the USGS goes and raises the prices on their maps. Well, they'll still be a good deal. But not outrageously good.

Free Movie on Tuesday

The Reel Africa 2008-2009 Film Festival at Rutgers is delighted to present:

DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE (Austria/Belgium/Tanzania et al; 2004) Directed
by Hubert Sauper in English, Swahili and Russian
This documentary tracks the profound impact of the Nile perch fishing industry in Lake Victoria (mapped). The voracious fish have wiped out local species; while the prized fillets are flown out to European
supermarkets, Tanzanians experiences famine. What do the planes that transport the fish to Europe bring in to the African continent?

International Critics Award, Sydney Film Festival; Best Documentary, European Film Awards; Audience Award, Mexico City Contemporary Film Festival; Best First Work, César Awards, France; Audience Award, Entrevues Film Festival; Vienna Film Award, Viennale; Europa Cinemas Label Award, Venice Film Festival; European Jury Award, Angers European First Film Festival;Nominee, Academy Award, Best Documentary Feature

Presented by RICK SCHROEDER, Department of Geography
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 at 7 P.M. in the Graduate Student Lounge, CAC

For a copy of the DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE flyer:
http://ruafrica.rutgers.edu/events/media/0809_media/darwins.pdf

For a copy of the full Reel Africa Film Festival line up:
http://ruafrica.rutgers.edu/events/media/0809_media/reel_africa.pdf
For more festival information: http://www.cinemastudies.rutgers.edu

Sponsors: Center for African Studies; Cinema Studies Program; International Programs; Transliteratures Program; Institute for Research on Women; Department of French; Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Graduate Student Association; Honors Program

Looking for work

With the down economy, we know an increasing number of out of work professionals. Peter Bregman at the Harvard Business Review has posted a nice blog entry with some nice tips about job searches. He says that you should spend less time reading ads and working on resumes and more time meeting people:

Spend all your hunting time with people: at lunch, on the phone, going for walks. Finding a job or new clients is all about human relationships.

Because:

It's highly unlikely, with all the people who are looking, that someone will hire someone they don't already know (or someone they know doesn't already know).

I am not yet fully convinced by the technology, but we have created a RU LA group on LinkedIn that may help you build a network more quickly. But, be careful. As the HBR note points out, it isn't about shallow networks, but building real relationships. And the harder you work at finding a job, the harder it can get to find one.

ArcGIS trees

ESRI's Mapping Center has an interesting and creative post about symbolizing trees.

National Red Day

In honor of National Red Day we looked at how Red is doing in Google Trends.

Recovering from DC

I had a very long day in DC yesterday, with my train being delayed 2+ hours going down and 2+ hours coming back. Tiring stuff.

Most of the day was spent with the UCGIS in the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress.

But on the way to the train I stopped for 15 minutes to see Foster + Partners new Kogod Courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery. It was great.

On the floor of the courtyard is this "fountain" which just has water sheeting across the granite. The drains on are the left side of the photo. (Mapped)While there I saw their newest addition, the iconic but controversial portrait of Obama by Shepard Fairey.

A map to keep you up at night

If you are tired, maybe you are just in the wrong place.

Mural Farm

After our recent Philly field trip, I suspect that some of our readers have a new fondness for the City of Brotherly Love. On their next exploration of the city, they may want to tap into the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program's new application called Mural Farm. They developed a photographic database of over 650 murals around Philadlphia and geolocated them, then put them on a searchable interactive map interface. Philly.com gives a quick overview. It runs on Avencia's Sajara and was built with help from Penn's CML.

DeBoer prize presentations

Rather than live blogging today's lecture, I am linking to a few related websites for readers who want to explore the places.

• Beijing
  
• Beijing Forest Park
• Beijing ring roads
  
• Nanzen-ji
  
• Ryoan-ju
  
• Daisen-in
  
• Nijo-jo Castle
  
• Tofuku-ji
  
• Brooklyn Botanic Garden
  

Start working on those applications for the 2009 DeBoer Travel Prize - the forms are outside Blake 113.

Let them track you

How is this not creepy?

Flower bulbs

The Plant Biology Seminar Series is pleased to announce:

Flower bulbs

William Miller , Ph.D.
Department of Horticulture
Cornell University

Friday, February 6, 2009
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Foran Hall, Room 138A, 59 Dudley Road, New Brunswick

Professor Miller's research focuses on floriculture and ornamental crop physiology, especially carbohydrate metabolism, partitioning, and utilization of stored reserves in flower bulbs. He also conducts near-market research on flower bulbs and perennials, including uses for both forcing, dry sales, and landscape use. Examples of such work include cultivar trials, use of growth regulators, and post-harvest physiology and handling practices.

Summer Internship in Chicago

Hitchcock Design Group has announced their summer internship program. The deadline is on February 20th, so you need to hurry up a little already.

Google Ocean

Until now, Google Earth let you explore the land but had no real content for the oceans, even though they cover 70% of the planet's surface. Now they have added more rocust ocean content by teaming up with the National Geographic Society, reports the Telegraph.

ASLA on Capitol Hill

ASLA reports on a notable legislative issue:

Senator Maria Cantwell (WA) introduced the Clean Energy Stimulus and Investment Assurance Act of 2009 (S.320), legislation geared toward creating high-wage green-collar jobs and revitalizing the economy through clean energy investments. ASLA worked with Senator Cantwell's office to ensure that a section of the bill was dedicated to green roof tax incentives.

Section 506 of the bill gives a 30% tax credit for qualified green roof property expenditures on residential and commercial buildings. The language puts the cap at $5000 on residential buildings, and no cap for commercial buildings. The bill outlines specific, ASLA-recommended
language, defining 'qualified green roofs' to mean any green roof at least 50 percent of which is a vegetated green roof system. The credit applies to any retrofit or new construction green roof.

In addition to the substantial input ASLA received from its expert green roof practitioner members, ASLA also received technical support from the non-profit organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. The legislation was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

Free topo maps

The Rutgers USGS Topo Quad Map Depot has moved to the elibrary.rutgers.edu server over in geography. It is a great free resource that I have explored previously.

The Spring 2009 Lecture Series

The Spring 2009 Lecture Series looks great. We are already off to a great start, with 2 provocative lectures, and now we have an impressive poster too.

Lecture: From Middle to Upper Class Sprawl

The Human Ecology Department Presents
From Middle to Upper Class Sprawl: Land Use Controls, Changing Patterns of Suburbanization, and Smart Growth in NJ

Dr. Thomas Rudel, Professor
Departments of Human Ecology & Sociology
Date: Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
Time: 12:35 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Location: Blake Hall, Room 131, Cook Campus
(http://maps.rutgers.edu/directions.aspx?id=36)

Tom Rudel conducts research on land use change. He has researched the driving forces behind tropical deforestation both through case studies in the Ecuadorian Amazon and through quantitative analyses at the global scale. The latter set of studies has included work on 'the forest transition'. He has also done research on the forces that have driven suburban sprawl, primarily through field studies in the northeastern United States. Currently, he is working through the implications of these processes for global warming and writing a book about how environmentally friendly behaviors in localities can in some instances have global scale effects.