How an Urban Design Challenge Was Used to Promote the Use of Green Infrastructure in a Park

As with many historic developments, the original stormwater management design of Chastain Park, a historic 268-acre park complex in the Buckhead neighborhood in North Atlanta, centered around gray infrastructure practices. As the infrastructure in the park reaches its design service life and is replaced, there is an opportunity to include green infrastructure (GI) as part of the stormwater management strategy. Various GI Best Management Practices (BMPs) can help to remove sediment, improve surface water quality, and encourage infiltration of urban runoff, bolstering the overall health of local streams and rivers. 

The purpose of the Chastain Park Green Infrastructure Design Challenge (Project) is to replace aging stormwater infrastructure at the north end of the park and incorporate GI stormwater BMPs into the surrounding landscape. The project has not been constructed, so the BMPS will be designed to maximize runoff infiltration and storage, improve aesthetics, and provide a visible and interactive opportunity for community engagement with the local hydrologic process.

Peak discharges, runoff volumes, and multiple hydraulic scenarios were modeled using Autodesk® Storm and Sanitary Sewer Analysis software. The analysis includes eight sub-basins (pre-development condition) and nine sub-basins (post-development condition) which route runoff to a downstream study point, Hamburger Pond. In this presentation we will review the site conditions, stormwater modeling of the existing and proposed conditions, and discuss the proposed design, including the various challenges.