Sustainable Land Development Today - January 2008 - (Page 36) By Nicholas Bugosh Industry Spotlight last year users in Australia and Europe have joined the “future of stable landform design.” In 2004, the U.S. Department of the Interior gave two awards, “National” and “Best of the Best” reclamation to sites designed using the GeoFluvTM approach. These sites endured 25- and 50-year storms without erosion before any vegetation was established, and without any artificial “erosion controls.” Subsequently a 200-year storm hit one site when only first-year vegetation was present and again it suffered no erosion problems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not require a stormwater discharge permit renewal for the site as it has demonstrated stability comparable to adjacent undisturbed lands. The images here are from work by Dan Hause, a design engineer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. few months later with first-year vegetation. As Hause reports, “. . .seeded last November, just as winter was starting. . . . vegetation is somewhat sparse . . .only grass and a few legumes . . . stream channels are showing usage, but are not cutting back and are staying in place.” You can imagine this as your grading project, whether it will be used for site development as a shopping or industrial area, golf course, subdivision, whatever! Erosion Control Without Erosion Controls New natural land-grading software helps control erosion and stormwater quality without expensive products and maintenance Consider being able to complete your site grading and not having to worry about installing costly extra erosion controls. Are you looking for help meeting stormwater discharge requirements at the lowest possible cost? Carlson Software’s “Natural Regrade” natural landform design module is the answer for you, thanks to its exclusive, patentpending, algorithm called GeoFluvTM that is based on fluvial geomorphic principles. GeoFluvTM design helps you make a site grading plan for your disturbed site that works like a landform that nature shaped into a stable landform over time — fluvial means “formed by flowing water” and geomorphic means “landforms.” Consider that many undisturbed landforms are the result of erosion over the last 10,000 or so years. During that time, thanks to unpredictable Mother Nature, infrequent, very extreme storms, and much more frequent annual storms, eroded the land into the most efficient shape for flowing water from the land. Traditional site grading plans focus on the site’s intended use, but generally ignore the need to reestablish a landform that is stable against erosion. Expensive “erosion control” measures to try to compensate for the disturbance and regular maintenance are then needed, and even with these, there may still be problems meeting stormwater discharge goals. Conversely, the GeoFluvTM approach asks the question, “Given this disturbance, how would nature shape the land over thousands of years to make a stable landform?” and then designs that landform. Natural Regrade has been used to make these natural GeoFluvTM designs at sites across North America and in the 36 January 2008 Sustainable Land Development Today The Software Solution The software module is named Natural Regrade because in addition to its core GeoFluvTM natural landform design program, it includes powerful tools to calculate the cut / fill balance, and also a material centroid calculator that shows where material is and where it needs to go to make the design, and even calculates straight line haul distances! Hause used all of these tools and realized significant cost savings (10 percent less than an alternative traditional design). Natural Regrade 2008 provides a natural solution for: • Site and residential development • Landscape design • City park and greenbelt areas • Golf course design • Agricultural sediment control • Mined land reclamation (coal, hard rock, aggregate) • Anywhere low-cost, low-maintenance, and natural beauty are desired Call Carlson Software now to learn more: “There is something new happening in landform design. It’s the future. It’s natural. Be a part of it.” SLDT This photograph shows the project during the construction period, when it was subjected to heavy rains. You can see the GeoFluvTM channel flowing water. Note the lack of artificial erosion controls. Yet Hause observed, “The heavy rains have allowed us to see how the drain ways work unvegetated. We had about five inches of rain over a two-day period and only had minor erosion.” This next image shows the finished site graded to the GeoFluvTM design a
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