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ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Unique Landfill Restoration Designs Increase Opportunities to Create Urban Open Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2016

Wolfram Hoefer ,
Frank Gallagher ,
Theresa Hyslop ,
Tyler J. Wibbelt  and
Beth Ravit
Wolfram Hoefer*
Affiliation:
Department of Landscape Architecture and Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability (CUES), School of Environmental & Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Frank Gallagher
Affiliation:
Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Environmental & Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Theresa Hyslop
Affiliation:
Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Environmental & Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Tyler J. Wibbelt
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, School of Environmental & Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Beth Ravit
Affiliation:
Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability (CUES) and Department of Environmental Sciences, School of Environmental & Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
*
Address correspondence to: Wolfram Hoefer, Department of Landscape Architecture, School of Environmental & Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, Blake Hall, 93 Lipman Drive, New Brunswick, NJ 08901; (phone) 848-932-9313; (e-mail) whoefer@SEBS.Rutgers.edu.
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Abstract

The majority of humans now live in cities where access to usable open space is often limited, causing a reexamination of current practices and values related to reuse of available urban lands. Closed landfills offer an unprecedented opportunity to convert large underutilized land into usable urban open space, as well as habitat for multiple species. However, existing landfill regulations and closure practices do not allow optimal ecological restoration designs for these underutilized properties to be realized, because current regulations focus on methods that protect required caps and prevent water infiltration. Through the exploration of two design case studies, the authors illustrate the opportunities to increase habitat diversity on closed landfills and to more closely approximate a natural topographic/vegetation interaction. Although initially a more costly restoration, unique restoration design elements enhance both long-term environmental and socio-economic values associated with the reuse of closed urban landfills, which are currently underutilized.

Environmental Practice 18: 106–115 (2016)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 106 - 115
Copyright
© National Association of Environmental Professionals 2016 

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