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Sustainable landscape construction : a guide to green building outdoors
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Sustainable landscape construction : a guide to green building outdoors

Author: J William Thompson; Kim Sorvig
Publisher: Washington : Island Press, ©2008.
Edition/Format:   Book : English : 2nd edView all editions and formats
Summary:
This book evaluates the assumption that all built landscapes are environmentally sound, and offers practical, professional alternatives for more sustainable landscape construction, design, and maintenance. Packed with clear concepts and never before compiled resources on "green" landscape work, the book is an inspiring overview of important practices and concerns. Organized around ten key principles of  Read more...
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Material Type: Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: J William Thompson; Kim Sorvig
ISBN: 9781597261425 1597261424 9781597261432 1597261432
OCLC Number: 145431837
Description: xxvii, 381 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.
Contents: Introduction : "Sustainability" in context : What is sustainability: politics, ethics, and semantics ; Landscapes against climate change ; Sustainability, substance, and style --
Principle 1. Keep healthy sites healthy : What is a health site? Take a role in "pre-construction" ; Do your homework first: knowledge as sustainability ; Avoid survey damage ; Minimize utility damage ; Physically protect site during construction ; Preserve healthy topsoil ; Save every possible existing tree: even just one ; Use Appropriate construction machinery ; Related design and planning issues ; Coordination and follow-up --
Principle 2. Heal injured sites : Turn wastelands to gardens ; Balance the environmental costs and benefits of restoration ; Involve the community in site restoration ; Restore landscapes structurally ; Restore damaged soils on-site ; Restore regionally appropriate vegetation ; Restore forests and coexist with wildfire --
Principle 3. Favor living, flexible materials : Hold slopes in place with biotechnical erosion control ; Make vertical structures "habitat-able" with greenwalls ; Turn barren roof spaces into "greenroofs" ; Construct for and with plants --
Evaluate turf: the green, the bad, and the ugly ; Count on plants to sustain --
Principle 4. Respect the waters of life : Work with the site's water regime ; Understand, protect, and restore natural wetlands ; Restore rivers and streams to full health ; Collect and conserve water ; Irrigate intelligently and sparingly ; Reuse graywater ; Purify water at every opportunity ; Test modern hardware for cleaner piped stormwater ; Let constructed wetlands treat water --
Principle 5. Pave less : Plan and design to reduce paving ; Take advantage of "context-sensitive road design" ; Use techniques that reduce runoff from paving ; Use porous paving materials ; Cool asphalt with planting and albedo. Principle 6. Consider origin and fate of materials : Recall some simple guidelines ; Let reuse be re-inspiration ; Use local, salvaged, or recycled materials ; Evaluate environmental costs when choosing suppliers ; Use sustainably harvested renewables ; Avoid toxic and nonrenewable materials ; Know general toxicity issues by material type ; Avoid three controversial materials ; Prioritize hazard-reduction efforts --
Principle 7. Know the costs of energy over time : Understand how landscape energy use is different ; Manage energy for machines, tools, and labor ; Embodied energy: why do we care? ; Use life-cycle costing to justify sustainable design ; Apply guidelines for landscape energy conservation --
Principle 8. Celebrate light, respect darkness : Respect the need for darkness ; Talk lighting: a brief glossary ; Try low-voltage lighting for flexibility ; Evaluate lamp performance ; Join the LED lighting revolution --
Principle 9. Quietly defend silence : Understand noise terminology ; Be aware of damage caused by noise ; Don't rely on noise "barriers" in most landscapes ; Try noise-absorbing barriers ; Modify pavement to reduce road noise ; Make noise invisible ; Fight noise with noise ; Push for quieter landscape tools ; Protect "soundscapes" through planning --
Principle 10. Maintain to sustain : Know the resource costs of conventional landscape maintenance ; Plan for maintainable spaces ; Expect change ; Use appropriate machinery and fuels ; Switch to bio-based maintenance products ; Apply integrated pest management ; Use fertilizers sustainably ; Don't water on-site resources ; Consider alternatives to mowing ; Adapt to using native plants ; Manage large public landscapes holistically, too ; Evaluate life-cycle costs of maintenance options ; Coordinate design, construction, and maintenance --
Conclusions and beginnings : Learning from the landscape: themes and strategies ; Green education in design and construction ; Landscapes as public environmental education ; Thinking one hundred years ahead.
Responsibility: William Thompson and Kim Sorvig ; with drawings by Craig D. Farnsworth.
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Abstract:

Provides ideas for designing, building, and maintaining environmentally sensitive landscapes. This book describes and illustrates projects from around the globe. It also contains a chapter which  Read more...

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