Week6
Trip to Interfluve
This week we went to visit one of the dam removal project of interfluve company in Massachusetts.
Interfluve started in 1983 as a way to restore damaged trout streams to bring back the fish populations. They introduced a unique team approach to the field of wildlife restoration, with a wide array of disciplines working on their projects. They follow the same approach today, housing hydrologists, ecologists, geomorphologists, and a wide variety of engineers on their team.
One of their engineer toured us through the project, what they were doing is basically move the aged dam which destroyed the original ecological cycle here, to revival the habitat here.
Interfluve’s work in the Urban Sphere is an extension of their river restoration projects, but in collaboration with Landscape architects and Urban planners. They’ve worked with firms including Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, TLS Landscape Architecture, and Sasaki as consultants helping with the creation of hydraulic and hydrologic systems, with working on the design of stormwater filtration and flood protection in high-risk sites, and to develop ideas on landscape design that stay within the constraints of the given environment. They describe their urban work as “connecting people to rivers – and restoring ecological function to highly altered systems.”
As an engineering firm, their goal is similar to those landscape firms , rather than designing they are implementing the ideas into reality. Those engineers should able to understand how how water system, habitats, human works in the area they constructing on in order to keep the balance between those factors.
I was really admire those people about how well they circled around designers and land owner and also the nature to truly realize the project which needs a lot patience and more experience in multiple fields. Not only designers, the engineers are contributing to save the world. In my opinion, a successful project should has smart design and perfect collaborative at same time. It is important to communicate well with every partner in the team.
Source: http://interfluve.com/
