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Abstract
The urban environment offers significant opportunities to improve sustainability and optimize water resources. Historically, research and software applications have been focused on the built environment (buildings). Cost-effective, practical tools that can assess the impact of different landscape configurations and their interactions with buildings have not been widely deployed. ecoSmart Landscapes (eSL) is a unique SaaS-based platform that helps to bridge this gap. It incorporates modelling and planning tools for the integrated assessment of carbon, water, energy, and fire impacts of landscapes at the residential parcel scale. Analytical and empirical models run concurrently and simulate effects of trees on building energy use, carbon sequestration, rainfall interception and threat posed by burning trees. Effects of shrubs, grass-covered rain gardens, engineered soils and cisterns on surface runoff are simulated as well. eSL’s modularity and configurability make it highly customizable and scalable to meet the needs of a wide range of users, from the general public to landscape architects, green industry professionals, and regional planners. The project is a collaborative effort that brings together 1) over 20 years of empirical urban forestry and urban-wildland interface fire research, 2) empirically tested residential scale hydrologic models, and 3) software developed by EcoLayers for integrated, adaptive, and collaborative management of water, land, and environment.
Citation
McPherson, E.G.; Xiao, Q.; Purohit, J.; Dietenberger, M.; Boardman, C.R., Simpson, J.; Peper, P. 2014. ecoSmart landscapes: a versatile SaaS platform for green infrastructure applications in urban environments. In: Ames, D.P., Quinn, N.W.T., Rizzoli, A.E., eds. 7th International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software. San Diego, CA: International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs): 1017-1024.
