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Project Year One 2000 |
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The Pittsburgh Pool is the rivers and streams within the pool created by the dam at Emsworth on the Ohio. Upstream boundaries are defined by the dams at Aspinwall on the Allegheny and Braddock on the Monongahela. Pittsburgh lies at the heart of this watershed system. The map on the left is one way of abstracting the 3 dimensional space of which Pittsburgh is composed. Only 6 seperate elements make up the image, but in viewing these elements as they are geographically related, one can read into some of the value systems that define our local environment, gain an understanding of the system as a whole Click on the map to explore a
larger version.
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The green color marks
the natural spots of land. The peach color marks municipal
areas such as athletic fields, swimming pools, and parks. The
blue bars are the dams on the rivers. The red lines are rail
road tracks and the grey lines are streets. Click the
image for a larger detail. |
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The
green spaces on the map denote woodland. It may seem obvious that
you would find less woodland as you get
closer to the heart of the city- but does it have to be that way?
What sort of values cause most available real estate to be developed
within
city limits? Economic factors cannot be ignored. Forrests don't "pay" in
the same way a development does. This mentality
couldn't be more clear in 2003 as the Pittsburgh City council voted
to allow
the Hays
Strip Mine to move foward. 645 acres of woodland, the largest green
area in the Pittsburgh Pool, (on the bottom right hand side of our
image) will be mined for coal and turned into a thoroughbred racetrack.
Articles on the subject
can be also be found here |
arial view of the Hays site
courtesy of the Tribune Review |
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In ecological terms, the woodlands hold obvious benifits for their ability to support complex ecosystems. But they also serve a vital role in the watershed. After a storm, all the rainwater that did not evaporate searches out low ground as swiftly as possible. Leaves on trees hold onto rainwater; soil acts as an absorbant sponge, slowing the water down and filtering it as it traverses the watershed. Pavement and impervious surfaces do not absorb any rainwater, nor does it filter the water. That water has to go somewhere and it does, creating a high volume "pulse" that moves through the watershed at a high velocity, hitting either the stream or the treatment center at breakneck speed. In a city that has a significant problem with its stormwater management, can we handle the extra burden of developing this watershed "catch basin?" Below is a schematic of the coal seam, according to existing data from USGS.
Image
created by Beth McCartney and 3 Rivers 2nd Nature.