Nature-Based Climate Solutions Archives

Innovative Municipal Green Infrastructure ESG Financing

Delta Institute is piloting an innovative financing and service delivery approach to support small-to-mid-sized Great Lakes municipalities to implement GI at scale—with the opportunity to transform GI financing in our home region.

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Restoring The Duck Creek Tributary In Northwest Indiana

Delta Institute is restoring a key waterway in Hobart, Indiana, that flows throughout the entire watershed and ultimately into Lake Michigan. Currently the waterway, the Duck Creek Tributary, overflows with pollution, sediment, and toxins—impacting the water quality downstream for many communities, including multiple that are designated Environmental Justice (EJ) communities.

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Protecting Water Quality on Chicago’s Southeast Side via Stormwater Wetlands at the IIPD

Delta Institute is working with our long-term partner, the Illinois International Port District to assess and evaluate the placement and creation of two new wetlands that will capture stormwater on IIPD's land--keeping pollutants from entering the Calumet River and traveling through dozens of downstream communities.

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Expanding and Stewarding Regional Forest Canopy via a Tree Planting Consortium in Northwest Indiana

Delta Institute (Delta) is working with municipal, business, and community partners in Lake County, Indiana to expand regional forest canopy acreage via an innovative multi-community approach to comprehensive canopy mapping; forest planning, installing 2,240+ trees, and expanding maintenance and capacity building. These efforts will be achieved via a collaborative tree planting consortium structure with foundational inclusive community engagement throughout the entire process.

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Generating Critical Data and Methods to Support Nature-Based Green Infrastructure in Chicago Communities

Delta Institute (Delta) is working with community partners to install and monitor the impacts and benefits of nature-based Green Infrastructure projects in the BIPOC-majority Chicago neighborhoods of Washington Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore in concert with Emerald South’s Terra Firma project to develop replicable resources for communities throughout the region. Our goal is to streamline green infrastructure implementation, maintenance, and assessment strategy.

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Overcoming Barriers to Municipal Green Infrastructure Implementation

Delta Institute (Delta) is examining the barriers preventing Green Infrastructure from being installed across the Great Lakes at the scale needed to address climate change. Delta’s research will inform the development of potential support services that will help municipalities overcome these barriers and improve local water quality, reduce flooding, and improve quality-of-life for their residents.

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Proactive Municipal Climate Planning: Delta Institute and the Resilience Innovation Hub

Delta Institute (Delta) joined the Resilience Innovation Hub, focused on increasing community adaptability while lowering insurance premiums. We are undertaking activities focused on understanding the barriers to implementing resilience activities at the local and regional scale while creating innovative solutions to assist communities to implement projects and initiatives to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

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Stormwater Tree Planting on the Hart Montague Trail in Oceana County, Michigan

Stormwater runoff from parking lots, roadways, buildings, and other impervious surfaces carries oils, grease, pesticides, sediment, and excess nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen into groundwater and nearby natural bodies of water--including to Lake Michigan through watershed tributaries. Delta Institute and our partners planted more than 700 trees in Oceana County, Michigan along the Hart Montague Trail, and on roadways within five adjacent communities.

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Creating a Green Infrastructure Plan for Gary, Indiana

Delta Institute's Gary Green Infrastructure Plan was a two-year project focused on assisting the City of Gary with planning and implementing Green Infrastructure designs, identifying 61 Priority Projects to install 26 acres of rain gardens, permeable pavements, street planters, and other GI designs.

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Cheney Run Wetland Creation, Stormwater Design and Installation in Michigan City, Indiana

Delta Institute partnered with the Michigan City Sanitary District (MCSD) and the Alliance for the Great Lakes to make stormwater, ecological restoration, and recreation improvements at Michigan City’s Cheney Run. A 40-acre site surrounded by wetlands, Cheney Run is a primary source of stormwater-related pollution that ends up in the Trail Creek, a major tributary that feeds into Lake Michigan.

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Stormwater Management Installations throughout Hobart, Indiana

Delta Institute and the City of Hobart, Indiana have implemented four GI installations throughout the city, including a courtyard rain garden at Hobart Middle School, a parking lot rain garden and permeable pavement in the front and backsides of Hobart City Hall, and a large bioswale in the city’s Hillman Park. These installations will collectively provide an additional 800,000 to 3.5 million gallons of stormwater management capacity.

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Phytoremediation in Muskegon, MI

Delta Institute established a hybrid poplar tree farm by planting 3,000 trees on brownfield sites in Muskegon, MI.

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Publications

Green Infrastructure Designs: Best Management Practices for Replicability

5-10 Year Forest Stewardship Plan for Oceana County (MI)

City of Gary Green Infrastructure Plan

Phytoremediation Overview for Brownfield Redevelopment

Rain Garden CAD Files Open Source Download

Underground Storage CAD Files Open Source Download

Permeable Pavement CAD Files Open Source Download

Stormwater Planter CAD Files Open Source Download

Bioswale Hybrid Ditch CAD Files Open Source Download

How-to-Phytoremediation; Brownfields into Assets through Community Forestry

Urban Wood Utilization Best Management Practices

Ecosystem Impacts of Electronic Waste in the Ohio Lake Erie Basin

Elkhart Case Study (2011): Phytoremediated Wood in the RV Industry

Projects

Innovative Municipal Green Infrastructure ESG Financing

Restoring The Duck Creek Tributary In Northwest Indiana

Protecting Water Quality on Chicago’s Southeast Side via Stormwater Wetlands at the IIPD

Expanding and Stewarding Regional Forest Canopy via a Tree Planting Consortium in Northwest Indiana

Generating Critical Data and Methods to Support Nature-Based Green Infrastructure in Chicago Communities

Overcoming Barriers to Municipal Green Infrastructure Implementation

Proactive Municipal Climate Planning: Delta Institute and the Resilience Innovation Hub

Stormwater Tree Planting on the Hart Montague Trail in Oceana County, Michigan

Creating a Green Infrastructure Plan for Gary, Indiana

Cheney Run Wetland Creation, Stormwater Design and Installation in Michigan City, Indiana

Stormwater Management Installations throughout Hobart, Indiana

Phytoremediation in Muskegon, MI

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