LAND AS THE RESOURCE - Low Impact Development and Sustainable Stormwater Management - page 61

Figure 3-11 A vision plan for the Allegheny riverfront will guide the transformation of land
use to LID (see Appendix B).
economic gain or community revitalization, the same rules should apply—build
to fit the limits of the land, following sustainable guidelines.
If the land has been severely degraded by prior activity, special restorative
measures may be required prior to redevelopment. The isolation of contaminated
soils or the removal of materials may be a requirement of preparing a given site
for renewed occupation. In many locations it may be impossible to restore the
original environmental qualities of a parcel (referred to as the “Humpty Dumpty
syndrome”), and the redevelopment process must be more creative in reestab-
lishing a suitable habitat. The redevelopment of the River Rouge plant by Ford
Motor Company (Figure 3-12) provided an excellent example in 2002, as they
sought to demonstrate the industrial plant model for the twenty-first century. In
this $2 billion project, they rebuilt with porous pavement and vegetated roof sys-
tems and attempted to remove residual pollutants from the soil with vegetation,
on a parcel that had seen a century of contamination.
3.6 PHYSICAL DETERMINANTS OF LAND DEVELOPMENT
Geology
The continent of North America and the middle portion occupied by the United
States is a complex geologic region, comprised of very different bedrock regions,
with coastal areas underlain be unconsolidated materials, especially along the
Eastern and Gulf coasts. The surface geology that underlies the United States
was formed over many different geologic periods and by the plate movements