3 hours. 1 hours lecture and 4 hours lab per week.
Landscape Engineering
Analytical Thinking
Course Description
Applications of landscape construction and engineering through inquiry into their ability to implement values of community and place.
Athena Title
Landscape Engineering
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
Students will select and design appropriate and functional solutions to mitigate stormwater quality degradation and the increased rate and volume of runoff on a site due to development. Measurement: Exercises, exams, and applied project
Students will give a prescribed development program, model a watershed’s hydrologic conditions (including pre and post development runoff) and generate a site plan that minimizes increased runoff. Measurement: Exercises and applied project
Students will use and identify standard notational and graphic conventions for grading and stormwater management plans. Measurement: Exercises, exams, and applied projects
Students will properly size, grade, and diagram stormwater management structures. Measurement: Exercises, exams, and applied project
Students will demonstrate the use of horizontal and vertical alignment criteria and formulae for road design. Measurement: Exercises and exams
Students will demonstrate the use of horizontal and vertical alignment criteria and formulae for road design.
Measurement: Exercises and exams
Students will manipulate the earth results in changes that are both quantitative and qualitative; implications of landscape engineering choices are addressed. Landscape forms and flows have both functional and aesthetic properties; this course focuses on the functional aspects, but aesthetics are presented and discussed for further application in the design studio sequence.
Students will determine site watershed stormwater rates and volumes, managing them using a variety of techniques.
Students will manipulate landforms in applied landscape architectural projects to achieve functional, environmental, and aesthetic goals,
Students will properly integrate required structures (pavements, buildings, roads, etc.) into a site landscape.
Students will respond to required site structures and earthwork volumes as constraints upon site grading.
As an applied skill, landscape engineering is both intuitive and analytical. It is near the core of applied landscape architectural skills. Landscape engineering is considered an essential component in your landscape architectural training, in the professional licensure exam and in professional practice.
This course provides the essential skills and knowledge necessary for the landscape architect to begin to shape the landscape. Achieving sustainability in landscape design is the product of careful and practiced application of these skills and knowledge.
Topical Outline
Most class sessions will consist of exercises to prepare
students for exams and applied design projects that will be
graded. In addition, homework that consists of similarly
important exercises will be assigned frequently. Students are
advised to do class work both during the studio session and at
other times in the building where they can learn from other
students.
I. Landscape Level (Weeks 1-4)
A. Visualizing the Landscape
1. Mapping, scales & units
2. Topography: contours
3. Plan, Section & Profile
B. Landscape Structure
1. Landforms
2. Watersheds
3. Water bodies
C. Landscape Function
1. Components & Interactions
2. Hydrologic Cycle and Water Balance
3. Systems of Flows – example: soil loss
D. Landscape Quantification
1. Determining area, distance & slope
2. Determining watershed water balance (Thornthwaite
method)
3. Determining watershed runoff volume and rate
a. Rational Formula
b. Modified Rational Formula
c. SCS Method (WinTR-55)
II. Site Level (Weeks 5-15)
A. Volumes
1. Grading Basins and Ponds
2. Grading Berms and Dams
3. Point and Contour Interpolation
4. Storage Volume & Earthwork
B. Infiltration and Runoff Volume Management
1. Soils and Infiltration rates
2. Rain gardens, bioswales and subsurface infiltration
3. Infiltration Modeling
C. Surface Conveyance and Runoff Velocity Management
1. Grading Swales and Channels
2. Velocity and Erosion Control
3. Sizing Swales and Channels
D. Structural Pads, Walkways and Foundation Walls
1. Grading Pads & Warped Pads
2. Grading Foundation Walls
3. Incorporating Drainage Swales
4. Earthwork
E. Subsurface Conveyance
1. Grading for Pipes
2. Piping Systems
3. Plan & Profile
4. Pipe Sizing
a. Inlet control
b. Outlet control
F. Detention and Runoff Rate Management
1. Sizing Detention Basins
2. Outlet Structure Devices
3. Grading Detention Basins
4. Grading Emergency Spillways
5. Temporary Sediment Basins
G. Vehicular Pavements
1. Grading Parking Lots
2. Roads and Rights of Way
3. Horizontal and Vertical Alignment
4. Plan & Profile
5. Earthwork
H. Staking Plans
1. Grid Staking
2. Base Line
3. Radial Staking
4. Coordinates
5. Stationing
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
