Ecological Design
The campus master plan expresses an aspiration to design our landscapes for both human comfort and ecological benefit.
This can be done by reasserting the dominance of natural processes, reducing the university’s carbon footprint, mitigating polluted runoff from lawns and parking lots, making landscapes more productive, and making them more beautiful and more comfortable for people.
Buildings, roadways, utility infrastructure, lawns and landscapes generate greenhouse gas emissions, warm the local climate through the “heat island” effect, and pollute storm water runoff. The plan shows how natural processes can be used on UB’s campuses to reduce and remediate these impacts in environmentally sustainable and cost-effective ways—like biofiltration of storm water runoff from parking lots.
UB’s finite land resources can be used more effectively to yield major benefits without requiring expanded infrastructure. The plan shows how naturalization can reduce maintenance costs. The front lawn and large quads of South Campus, for example, offer opportunities for increased community engagement and urban reforestation.
The plan suggests that UB landscapes can also be productive, with acreage on the North Campus used for growing biomass fuels to help meet campus energy needs.
Buffalo’s climate extremes can challenge pedestrians and increase indoor heating and cooling loads. The plan demonstrates how outdoor spaces can be designed to capture heat or provide shade from the sun, muffle winds, and reduce drifting snow and snow-clearance requirements.
Making a great campus and reducing our impacts on the environment clearly can go hand in hand.
