Landscape Services
Nationally and locally, governing bodies responsible for regulating development are reevaluating the common practices used for decades. In many cases, these regulations are coalescing around the principles of Low Impact Development (LID) & Sustainable Design.
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Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), Dept. of Environmental Management (DEM) & local municipalities exercise their jurisdiction to regulate many of the details relating to how you can make changes to your property. Clark Farms is committed to helping our clients manage and develop their property in accordance with these regulations and for the benefit of us all. Low Impact Development (LID) is a comprehensive land planning and engineering design approach with a goal of maintaining and enhancing the pre-development hydrologic regime of urban and developing watersheds. Sustainable Design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment and services to comply with the principles of economic, social and ecological sustainability. |
RI General Laws Chapter 45-61.2 "The Smart Development for a Cleaner Bay Actof 2007"
Essentially this law charges DEM & CRMC with the task of amending the existing Rhode Island Stormwater Design & Installation Standards Manual (adopted in 1993) to include Low Impact Development, (LID) strategies and standards.
The purpose of LID is to reduce the impact of development while retaining & enhancing the owner / developer's purpose & vision for the site. Many of the LID concepts can reduce development costs while maintaining or even increasing the value of the property.
LID Goals:
- Reduce impervious surfaces, thus reducing run-off.
- Prevent imacts to natural drainage ways, water bodies & wetlands.
- Manage water as close to the source as possible, minimize large collection systems.
- Preserve natural areas, native vegetation & reduce the impact on watershed hydrology.
- Protect natural drainage ways as a framework for design.
- Utilize less complex, non-structural methods for stormwater management that will lower costs & maintenance.
- Create a multi-functional landscape.
- Permeable Pavement - patios & driveways
- Rain Gardens (see tab)
- Rainwater Harvesting for Irrigation / Rain Barrels
- Planted Drainage / Infiltration Swales
- Filter Strips
- Green Roofs
What is a rain garden? It is a depression designed to collect storm water run-off from roofs, driveways or other areas, allowing it to infiltrate and recharge groundwater. Every time it rains, water runs off impervious surfaces collecting pollutants along the way. This run-off is a major vehicle for the transportation of pollutants into our waterways. By building a rain garden, you can reduce the amount of pollutants entering our waterways. Collectively, the more rain gardens we install contributes directly to reducing pollutants affecting water quality in our wetlands, streams, lakes and bays.
- Physical - help manage storm water & pollutants
- Aesthetics - when done well, it can create an attractive space & focal point
- Habitat Creation - depending on the size it the habitat effects can vary
At Clark Farms, we believe these systems to be an opportunity to help the environment in an aesthetically pleasing way. When designing, we look for opportunities to integrate rain gardens and other ecologically friendly practices into the landscape.
Some critical design requirements:
- Soil must be able to allow adequate infiltration, soil testing is a required first step.
- Proper placement & sizing of a water garden will ensure the system works as intended.
- Plants must be able to handle extremes of wet and dry; bioretention rain garden areas are “extreme environments”.
- Bioretention areas / rain gardens goal is to restore a site to its predevelopment hydrology. The hydrology model is based on forest hydrology where runoff is less than 1%. This goal is difficult to achieve but every little bit helps.
