THE VILLAGE OF STAMFORD WETLAND PARK: FUNCTIONAL LANDSCAPE DESIGN AT WATERSHED AND LOCAL LEVELS

Outi Salminen

Water Resources Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 5300, FIN-02015 HUT, Finland
outi@cc.hut.fi

In this exemplary project interdisciplinary functional landscape design is being utilized to construct a park that simultaneously mitigates water-related environmental problems both at the watershed and local levels, while providing educational, recreational, and aesthetic value.

The 1,8 hectare site is located at the headwaters of the Delaware River, Village of Stamford, New York, USA. Water quality is of concern as water from the site departs as a stream bound for the Delaware River and further to the Cannonsville New York City Drinking Water Reservoir.  Agricultural, residential, and highway runoff enters the site from a 22 hectare catchment of steep hills. Several buildings directly downstream from the site flood annually posing a local nuisance.

The park area will be developed to optimize its water treatment capacity by enhancing the qualities of the natural wetland located on the site. A sequence of two forebays, a wetland passage, and a micropool will be constructed on the site. Water aeration is to be facilitated by design where appropriate. Forebays, located where water is entering the site, are pools deep and wide enough to allow suspended solids to settle for periodic removal. Wetland passage will be lengthy, meandering and low gradient, which will guarantee long retention time and thus long contact to the purifying wetland flora and microbiota. Varying elevation of the wetland passage in each section will provide habitats for a variety of plants and microbes increasing biodiversity and the number of biological and chemical water purification processes occurring on the site. A micropool at the end of the wetland park will provide the environmental conditions for additional biological and chemical purification processes before water exits the site.

Confining the stream into an undersized pipeline, running below development and a paved commercial parking lot downstream from the site, has been identified to cause the local flooding problem. Stream daylighting (reopening of the stream channel) is proposed as a solution to alleviate the flooding nuisance while simultaneously allowing biological activity in the stream and bringing the stream viewable to the parking lot users. Increasing biological activity in the daylighted section of the stream will further promote improved water quality.  

Constructed elements within the park are designed to reveal natural processes, including the ability of wetlands to purify water, and to celebrate local species diversity. As the design elements each serve multiple purposes the site distraction will remain at a low level preserving the natural character of the site.