Rowan University Stormwater & Landscape Master Plan

By integrating stormwater management and landscape master planning, a university now has a holistic strategy for campus expansion within a network of thriving campus landscapes and high-performing ecological infrastructure.

From its modest beginnings in 1923, Rowan University has grown to become a comprehensive public research university. This growth has substantially reduced pervious surfaces and outpaced adequate stormwater management, which has adversely impacted Chestnut Branch, which runs through the center of campus. Having developed in spurts, Rowan’s 225-acre campus includes buildings of various styles and open spaces of several scales and types. A major roadway bisects the campus, impacting mobility, safety, and ecological and campus connectivity. With significant growth projected and several capital improvement projects in planning phases, the University contracted Biohabitats to develop a master plan to guide the creation of sustainable, functional campus landscapes that integrate stormwater management, open spaces, and connectivity.

Biohabitats began by dividing the campus into zones, based on watershed catchment areas. Within each zone, we evaluated the interrelationships and environments of open spaces, performed hydrologic analyses to determine potential impacts on current and future development by 5, 10 and 100 year storms, and examined overall campus connectivity. Biohabitats identified opportunities for restoration, retrofitting, conservation, and new development within each zone, as well as opportunities to connect zones through integrated functional open space. The team also developed a strategy to guide the implementation of these improvements.

Inherent in the master plan is the goal to protect, enhance, and create functional or “working” landscapes that embrace water as a natural resource, while also providing habitat, microclimates, aesthetics, recreation and respite, social spaces, and learning landscapes. The plan provides a framework for future campus management and planning, while also defining a renewed sense of natural function, social interaction, and spatial definition. The plan was accompanied by a parallel design and implementation effort to showcase the principles and vision of the master plan. An early action project was targeted to transform drainage around Memorial Hall, where chronic localized flooding was occurring, into a water filtration zone that slows, treats and directs flows away from the building. Native plantings frame the area in what is now a focal point.

TAGS

• Analysis+Planning
• Assessment+Monitoring
• Design
• Conservation
• Ecological Restoration