Milestone 4_ Idea_Solution Pitch Approval
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School
North Carolina State University *
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Course
102
Subject
Geography
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
Pages
4
Uploaded by MasterMantis3844
Team Members: Alissa Huang, Lilli Middleton, Carter Moffett, Kaitlyn Zuendel, Alexis
Smith
Creating Green Spaces as a Community
Intro
Green spaces are a dedicated section inside of a city that allow for plants and
vegetation to bloom. Their primary purpose is to counteract the harmful effects of a
cities' concentrated population. But what if a green space could potentially boost
morale in a low-income neighborhood? What if not only does it boost spirits, but
could also bring a community together and unite to continue pushing for more
infrastructural changes in their city? We aim to find a way that these hypotheticals
can come to fruition. Our plan is to create recreational green spaces to low-income
neighborhoods within heat islands that can help bring citizens together and
potentially counteract flooding and heat islands.
Our target population is the low-income neighborhoods in the city of Detroit.
We aim to make green spaces in these neighborhoods and have it host recreational
events to help the community grow together. Some nuances to this plan include;
growing their own food in the space, hosting games and charity events, and also
bringing pieces of the green space and growing them at their own homes. There are
a plethora of pros to this plan. With bringing the community together, we can help
reduce the tremendous amount of crime in the area. The green spaces also benefit
the infrastructure of cities. It can reduce flooding in cities and reduce the amount of
air pollution that is created in said city. We hope that this plan can be used as a
blueprint for future cities and populations that suffer from these similar issues.
Relate solution
The Grand Challenge that we intend to address is “Restore and Improve Urban
Infrastructure”. According to NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering, the American
Society of Civil Engineers conducted a survey to rate various aspects of urban
infrastructure. As of 2013, U.S infrastructure was rated a D+. As the population
continues to grow, the demand for adequate infrastructure continues to compound
(
Grand Challenges - Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure
, n.d.). The main issue
that we want to address within this grand challenge is the urban heat island
phenomenon. The Urban Heat Island effect occurs when a metropolitan area is
significantly warmer than nearby rural areas. The goal of our solution will be to
update urban infrastructure to reduce this effect as much as possible. This would
improve the quality of life and health of urban residents, especially low-income
residents that may lack the ability to protect themselves from effects of severe heat.
Team Members: Alissa Huang, Lilli Middleton, Carter Moffett, Kaitlyn Zuendel, Alexis
Smith
Solution
Our solution incorporates a multitude of existing solutions such as green roofs
and community gardens, using these tools to focus on awareness for the issue and
relieving these heat islands in low-income areas, which are typically more impacted
by such heat islands. Our plan is twofold: educating children and families in
low-income communities and giving the affected ways to mitigate the effects. As
one major way to mitigate urban heat islands is to increase vegetation and shade, we
plan to lobby municipal governments and work with local communities to provide
gardening equipment and tips that allow for each household to make their own
green spaces. There would be provided literature on urban heat islands in schools
and communities, along with guides on how to grow various plants, what to use as
planters, how to create raised growing boxes, and how to access free materials to
start off. This is both cost-effective and provides additional benefits such as
beautifying the landscape and creating a space to grow produce. These green
spaces build not only community, but knowledge about the issue of urban heat
islands. Having these green spaces will not only help to decrease the heat by offering
shade, but help cool down and manage stormwater runoff as well. Beyond this larger
program, we will make smaller programs that help get saplings planted in
low-income urban areas and provide subsidized home alterations that help mitigate
heat absorption, such as white roofs or even planted green roofs.
Our solution is something that hasn’t quite been seen before, however it does
synergize well with current efforts to make Detroit more sustainable and less
susceptible to the effects of urban heat islands. There has been a push for more
green spaces, creating public spaces with free air conditioning, and removing
pavement from public spaces (Sanchez, L., & Reames, T. G., 2019). However, these
efforts are largely not helping the communities that need help the most. Our
solution is catered towards something the community and locals can actively
contribute to, giving them the opportunity and tools to alleviate the urban heat
island that they live in. This way, it can be implemented in even the poorest of
communities. It’s a combination of social, political, and educational efforts that will
empower the people most affected to take action and create the solution that they
need.
Presentation/marketing
Our marketing campaign is based around making simple infographics and
posters that still create a call to action directed towards our target audience, which in
this case is families and their children. However, posters and infographics can’t
contain everything that our proposal/solution has to offer. On these
posters/infographics we will place a QR leading to either a website or slideshow that
Team Members: Alissa Huang, Lilli Middleton, Carter Moffett, Kaitlyn Zuendel, Alexis
Smith
contains more information. Because of this not only will we be utilizing posters, but
we will also create a slideshow or website that goes more in depth of what exactly
this proposal contains. We’re talking about completely redoing certain parts of
Detroit, so it’s natural that someone along the way would be skeptical of everything.
Creating infographics and posters that grab someone’s attention, and then giving
them a way to learn more about the plans creates a sense of trust and commitment
to our goals.
It’s also understood that not everyone can digest words/information and
create a picture in their mind of what that looks like when put into action. So
creating models or generated photos of Detroit before and after could also be used
to create more reassurance in the people that the solution proposed is one that
would help the city in more ways than one. After all, the only way that this solution is
going to work is if the citizens of the city trust the campaign and believe in it to help
put forward the combined efforts, to help their city.
Timeline
Our timeline for this project was to finish within the semester. So far, we are on
track to this goal as we have been turning in the milestones before the due date. As
long as we continue this pattern of turning in our assignments on time we will be
able to complete our project within the semester and within our timeline. We feel
that we will be able to complete milestone 5 with more discussion and research
within the semester. Cost, visual designs, and visible aspects of our solution are
things that we will need to work out and calculate, though, we feel as if we will be
able to complete milestone 5 before the end of the semester. Currently, our group
feels no need for our initial timeline to be significantly updated.
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Team Members: Alissa Huang, Lilli Middleton, Carter Moffett, Kaitlyn Zuendel, Alexis
Smith
References
Causes, Effects, and Solutions To Urban Heat Island
. (n.d.). Conserve Energy Future.
Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/effects-solutions-urban-heat-island.
php
Chow, W., & Chugh, A. (2022, August 19).
How to cool down cities and eliminate
urban heat islands
. The World Economic Forum. Retrieved October 18, 2023,
from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/08/ways-to-cool-cities-and-avoid-urba
n-heat-islands/
Detroit Climate Strategy
. (2020). City of Detroit. Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
https://detroitmi.gov/departments/general-services-department/office-sustain
ability/detroit-climate-strategy
Grand Challenges - Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure
. (n.d.). Grand
Challenges for Engineering. Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
https://www.engineeringchallenges.org/9136.aspx
Heat Island Cooling Strategies | US EPA
. (2023, August 28). Environmental Protection
Agency. Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/heat-island-cooling-strategies
Sanchez, L., & Reames, T. G. (2019).
Cooling Detroit: A socio-spatial analysis of equity
in green roofs as an urban heat island mitigation strategy.
Urban Forestry &
Urban Greening, 44, 126331. Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2019.04.014
Using Trees and Vegetation to Reduce Heat Islands | US EPA
. (2023, August 11).
Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-isla
nds
Williams, J. (2021, July 14).
7 ways to reduce the urban heat island effect
. The
Earthbound Report. Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
https://earthbound.report/2021/07/14/5-ways-to-reduce-the-urban-heat-island-
effect/