Tags: research

It’s a common belief that access to green space in our everyday lives is crucial for the well-being of humans, especially the majority who live in urban environments.  Studies have shown that greenery and green space makes us happier and physically healthier, and reduces crime rates. 

Ballistic Architecture Machine’s (BAM) concept for a green roof installation, called Biornis Aesthetope, is an aviary for migrating birds proposed for the 70,000 sq ft rooftop of Goldman Sachs in Lower Manhattan.  Ornithologists at Harvard and Cornell Universities provided BAM guidance on the resting and nutritional needs for 12 species of birds, including diurnal raptors, songbirds and owls, whose migration paths along the Atlantic Coast Flyway bring them through New York City regularly.

The Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Science recently released a report finding that polluted and damaged ecosystems have the potential to recover within a lifetime (average of 46 years), or even as little as a decade. Researchers studied 240 sites affected by both natural and human-induced disturbances and concluded that, with adequate restoration and cleanup work, even a heavily polluted ecosystem can revitalize itself.

Cattails, those wetland mainstays, are a becoming a popular tool for use in phytoremediation, the use of plants to remove and control environmental pollutants.  Arsenic, pharmaceuticals, even chemicals from explosives–cattails have been used in absorbing all of them.  This sounds promising to us. 

Did we mention that we are trying to develop a research and development agenda for Freshkills Park?  Park development over the next several years will only be able to open up about 100 acres of the 2,200-acre site to the public.