Geospatial Thinking to Prioritise and Inform LID Retrofits and Ecological Placemaking for BMP Sites

Edwards Aquifer ecosystem is a vital source of drinking water for millions of people in the Central Texas Region. Regulations at the state, regional and local levels deal primarily with allocating water use and monitoring water quality standards; yet fall short of imposing enhancement for water management sites, known as Best Management Practices (BMP). This chapter is a review of a pilot project and technical report (Kamal et al. in Implementing Low Impact Develop (LID): A Site Selection Process, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, 2016) funded by several agencies in the state of Texas including Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) and San Antonio River Authority (SARA) and Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA). The project aimed at enhancing the efficiency of BMP sites selected using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and site audit for pollutant-prone sites. Placemaking principles have also been integrated as an opportunity to create informal, people-driven, alternative scenarios (Markusen in Int J Urban Sci 17:291–303, 2013) and were utilised to define several public areas around the retrofitted sites. Using a multicriteria weighted-suitability model was created to select most vulnerable sites (Kamal et al. in Implementing Low Impact Develop (LID): A Site Selection Process, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, 2016), both neighborhood and regional geographic scopes were included. This was followed by incorporating ecological urbanism and placemaking parameters into the GIS model workflow. The Geospatial model implemented in this case study yielded a selection of two sites prone to high pollutant loads. These sites were further explored by senior student teams at the University of Texas at San Antonio in collaboration with stakeholders to identify potentials for retrofitting using site individualised parameters and Low Impact Development (LID) practices. The retrofitting design approach focused on emulating the ecological natural system through sustainable landscape and placemaking to enhance social and curricula activities. A treatment train of LID practices for retrofitting the site was developed in a senior studio design led by the author helped to align urban design tools for maximum ecological, health, and wellbeing benefits.