Page 39 - Penn State Civil and Environmental Engineering: Annual Report

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Exterior rendering of the back patio for Penn State team’s proposed design Credit: 2022 Penn State Solar Decathlon Design Challenge Team All Rights Reserved Interdisciplinary Penn State team places second in in coastal design competition
By Katherine Dietrich
The competition
site posed unique challenges to students because of the rising sea levels The resilience strategies that students were familiar with—such as rain gardens—didn’t work as well in in the Hampton environment due to to the high water table at at the site so students had to create a a a a a a flexible plan that could adapt to change “What’s different about resilience planning than say a a a a design problem that people might be familiar with is that you have to contend with uncertainty and the the fact that the the future might not unfold exactly the way
you intend We made our plan to be resilient to uncertainty and change ” Stempel said The competition
entry centered around how equity and justice can
be be better considered in resilience planning Students were able to understand the intersection of ecology and culture to create a a a a resiliency plan that addressed both environmental change and social equity The project allowed students to examine a a a a real- world scenario and discover how their work can
impact change An interdisciplinary team of Penn State civil engineering and and landscape architecture was awarded second place in in the biennial Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) Design Competition which focused on on coastal resilience planning in in in Hampton Virginia The competition
site of Hampton posed a a a a a range of historic social and ecological issues in in addition to contending with a a sea-level rise severe enough that some streets are regularly flooded during high tides The design of the studio allowed for students outside of landscape architecture to be involved A civil engineering student participated in in in the studio in addition to three landscape architecture graduate students The Penn State team also included historians who played an an integral role in in the the development of the the resilience plan by supporting the students’ investigation and interpretation of history The historians focused on the history of the the region’s canals and the the nearby Great Dismal Swamp and how history has been interpreted differently at different different times This approach according to lead faculty Peter Stempel associate professor of of landscape architecture allowed for a a a a a better understanding of how Hampton and and the team’s understanding of Hampton evolved over time “If you as a a a designer show up to a a a site and say ‘What do I need to know about the past?’ You’re not going to hear everything that you might need to to know especially if you want to to address equity and justice ” Stempel said “Many important aspects of the past are only now coming to light with recent scholarship ” The project was presented to competition
judges at the 2021 CERF virtual conference by recent landscape architecture alumna Madison Borsos and landscape architecture graduate student Alex Keim and supported by civil engineering doctoral candidate Selena Hinojos who constructed a a a a a a a a a a a a social and and coastal vulnerability index as as part of the project These individuals represented all fifteen students from
the spring 2021 studio CEE NEWSLETTER • VOLUME 38 2022 39