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Center For Neighborhood Technology
The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) is a non-profit organization, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, which is committed to sustainable development and urban communities. The organization was founded in 1978 by Scott Bernstein, Stanley Hallett, and Dr. John Martin. It has recently grown to include an office in San Francisco, California. CNT has been responsible for developing a variety of projects. It launched two non-profits; Elevate Energy, an organization that develops and implements initiatives to help consumers and communities control energy costs and reduce energy use; and I-GO, a membership-based car sharing organization that provides hourly rental of a fleet of cars located across Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. It also created Wireless Community Networks, a wireless internet access project which uses a mesh network. CNT's Urban Practice Consulting offers a menu of tools which can be applied individually or collectively to urban development and redevelop ...
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Non-governmental Organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus on humanitarian or social issues but can also include clubs and associations offering services to members. Some NGOs, like the World Economic Forum, may also act as lobby groups for corporations. Unlike international organizations (IOs), which directly interact with sovereign states and governments, NGOs are independent from them. The term as it is used today was first introduced in Article 71 of the UN Charter, Article 71 of the newly formed United Nations Charter in 1945. While there is no fixed or formal definition for what NGOs are, they are generally defined as nonprofit entities that are independent of governmental influence—although they may receive government funding. According to the United Nations Department of Global Communic ...
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Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its south. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the List of U.S. states and territories by GDP, fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the List of U.S. states and territories by population, sixth-largest population, and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 25th-most land area. Its capital city is Springfield, Illinois, Springfield in the center of the state, and the state's largest city is Chicago in the northeast. Present-day Illinois was inhabited by Indigenous peoples of the Americas#History, Indigenous cultures for thousands of years. The French were the first Europeans to arrive, settling near the Mississippi and Illinois River, Illinois rivers in the 17th century Illinois Country, as part of their sprawling colony of ...
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Swale (landform)
A swale is a shady spot, or a sunken or marshy place. In US usage in particular, it is a shallow channel with gently sloping sides. Such a swale may be either natural or human-made. Artificial swales are often infiltration basins, designed to manage water runoff, filter pollutants, and increase rainwater infiltration. Bioswales are swales that involve the inclusion of plants or vegetation in their construction, specifically. On land The use of swales has been popularized as a rainwater-harvesting and soil-conservation strategy by Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, and other advocates of permaculture. In this context a swale is usually a water-harvesting ditch on contour, also called a ''contour bund''. Swales as used in permaculture are designed by permaculturalists to slow and capture runoff by spreading it horizontally across the landscape (along an elevation contour line), facilitating runoff infiltration into the soil. This archetypal form of swale is a dug-out, slo ...
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Green Roof
A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. Container gardens on roofs, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, although this is debated. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater. Vegetation, soil, drainage layer, roof barrier and irrigation system constitute the green roof. Green roofs serve several purposes for a building, such as absorbing rainwater, providing insulation, creating a habitat for wildlife, and decreasing stress of the people around the roof by providing a more aesthetically pleasing landscape, and helping to lower urban air temperatures and mitigate the heat island effect. Green roofs are suitable for retrofit or redevelopment projects as well as new ...
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Pervious Concrete
Pervious concrete (also called porous concrete, permeable concrete, no fines concrete and porous pavement) is a special type of concrete with a high porosity used for concrete flatwork applications that allows water from precipitation and other sources to pass directly through, thereby reducing the runoff from a site and allowing groundwater recharge. Pervious concrete is made using large aggregates with little to no fine aggregates. The concrete paste then coats the aggregates and allows water to pass through the concrete slab. Pervious concrete is traditionally used in parking areas, areas with light traffic, residential streets, pedestrian walkways, and greenhouses. Report No. 522R-10. It is an important application for sustainable construction and is one of many low impact development techniques used by builders to protect water quality. History Pervious concrete was first used in the 1800s in Europe as pavement surfacing and load bearing walls. Cost efficiency was the ...
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Rain Garden
Rain gardens, also called bioretention facilities, are one of a variety of practices designed to increase rain runoff reabsorption by the soil. They can also be used to treat polluted stormwater runoff. Rain gardens are designed landscape sites that reduce the flow rate, total quantity, and pollutant load of runoff from impervious urban areas like roofs, driveways, walkways, parking lots, and compacted lawn areas. Rain gardens rely on plants and natural or engineered soil medium to retain stormwater and increase the lag time of infiltration, while remediating and filtering pollutants carried by urban runoff. Rain gardens provide a method to reuse and optimize any rain that falls, reducing or avoiding the need for additional irrigation. A benefit of planting rain gardens is the consequential decrease in ambient air and water temperature, a mitigation that is especially effective in urban areas containing an abundance of impervious surfaces that absorb heat in a phenomenon know ...
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Green Infrastructure
Green infrastructure or blue-green infrastructure refers to a network that provides the “ingredients” for solving urban and climatic challenges by building with nature.Hiltrud Pötz & Pierre Bleuze (2011). Urban green-blue grids for sustainable and dynamic cities. Delft: Coop for life. . The main components of this approach include stormwater management, climate adaptation, the reduction of heat stress, increasing biodiversity, food production, better air quality, sustainable energy production, clean water, and soil health, healthy soils, as well as more human centered functions, such as increased quality of life through recreation and the provision of shade and shelter in and around towns and cities. Green infrastructure also serves to provide an ecological framework for social, economic, and environmental health of the surroundings. More recently scholars and activists have also called for green infrastructure that promotes social inclusion and equity rather than reinforcin ...
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Stormwater
Stormwater, also written storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed land surface in ponds and puddles, evaporate back into the atmosphere, or contribute to surface runoff. Most runoff is conveyed directly as surface water to nearby streams, rivers or other large water bodies (wetlands, lakes and oceans) without treatment. In natural landscapes, such as forests, soil absorbs much of the stormwater. Plants also reduce stormwater by improving infiltration, intercepting precipitation as it falls, and by taking up water through their roots. In developed environments, such as cities, unmanaged stormwater can create two major issues: one related to the volume and timing of runoff ( flooding) and the other related to potential contaminants the water is carrying (water pollution). In addition to the pollutants carr ...
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Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. With a population of about 6 million and an area of about 65,500 square miles, Wisconsin is the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 20th-largest state by population and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 23rd-largest by area. It has List of counties in Wisconsin, 72 counties. Its List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, most populous city is Milwaukee; its List of capitals in the United States, capital and second-most populous city is Madison, Wisconsin, Madison. Other urban areas include Green Bay, Wisconsin, Green Bay, Kenosha, Wisconsin, Kenosha, Racine, Wisconsin, Racine, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and the Fox Cities. Geography of Wiscon ...
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio and the Ohio River to its west, Lake Erie and New York (state), New York to its north, the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east, and the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest via Lake Erie. Pennsylvania's most populous city is Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 through a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of William Penn (Royal Navy officer), the state's namesake. Before that, between 1638 and 1655, a southeast portion of the state was part of New Sweden, a Swedish Empire, Swedish colony. Established as a haven for religious and political tolerance, the B ...
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Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the west, and Michigan to the northwest. Of the 50 List of states and territories of the United States, U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-largest by area. With a population of nearly 11.9 million, Ohio is the List of U.S. states and territories by population, seventh-most populous and List of U.S. states and territories by population density, tenth-most densely populated state. Its List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city is Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, with the two other major Metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan centers being Cleveland and Cincinnati, alongside Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Akron, Ohio, Akron, and Toledo, Ohio, Toledo. Ohio is nicknamed th ...
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New York (state)
New York, also called New York State, is a U.S. state, state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. New York is the List of U.S. states and territories by population, fourth-most populous state in the United States, with nearly 20 million residents, and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 27th-largest state by area, with a total area of . New York has Geography of New York (state), a varied geography. The southeastern part of the state, known as Downstate New York, Downstate, encompasses New York City, the List of U.S. cities by population, most populous city in the United States; Long Island, with approximately 40% of the state's population, the nation's most populous island; and the cities, suburbs, and wealthy enclaves of the lower Hudson Valley. These areas are the center of the expansive New ...
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