May 26, 2018
I leave for Germany tomorrow! I am really excited and nervous at the same time. My flight is 8hrs long, but it is at night, so hopefully I can sleep through it. As soon as we settle in, I know those nerves will go away.
We have been hard at work preparing for the trip by working on case studies focusing on Stormwater and researching parks in Germany that we will be visiting. My groups case study focused on The Rogers International School in Stamford, Connecticut. We took a trip to the school and learned about how their stormwater system works on site, how well their green roof is functioning, and picked up on more sustainable ways that the school focuses on. The design is very low maintenance at this point and attracts wildlife such as fox, deer, birds, raccoon and more.
What I liked about their stormwater design was that they had an open system where the water is visible to visitors as it flows through the site and creates movement in the Landscape. Seeing this system in action helps bring more awareness to drainage, water filtration and water reuse.
This trip helped prepare us on how to start looking at stormwater design systems in Germany and how to understand/process how effective the systems are and how big of an impact they are on a small scale and a larger scale. It will be interesting to see the new stormwater designs and techniques that Germany takes to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly in the next few weeks!
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