Delta Institute 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 West Woodlawn and South Shore in concert with Blacks in Green (BIG) and their Sustainable Square Mile, and with South Merrill Community Garden. Our goal is to streamline green infrastructure implementation, maintenance, and assessment strategy.
Why Our Work is Needed
Delta knows from our experience working in communities throughout the Midwest and Great Lakes Basin that climate and environmental problems are most acute in disinvested areas living with legacy issues. The BIPOC-majority South Side Chicago neighborhoods of Washington Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore are experiencing chronic flood events that are made worse by more frequent climate-impacted precipitation and failing stormwater infrastructure. These neighborhoods continue to lose tree canopy coverage while vacant and underutilized properties number in the hundreds. Underlying all of this is an ongoing recovery from systemic injustices that extracted wealth, prevented economic development, and limited important resources and infrastructure in these neighborhoods.
Green Infrastructure can help communities manage their stormwater runoff, improve air and water quality, increase property values, and build social cohesion but a lack of implementation guidance and critical data often prevents it from being installed. Easily accessible data and information needs to be generated and distributed to demonstrate to community groups, elected officials, and municipal agencies that Green Infrastructure is a viable solution.
Brief Overview of What We’re Doing
In 2022-2024 Delta Institute partnered with several community organizations in Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods to accomplish their goals of installing Green Infrastructure Best Management Practices (BMPs) such as bioswales, rain gardens, or permeable pavement on vacant lots. The majority of Delta’s efforts focused on the crucial steps toward site acquisition such as community engagement and baseline data collection. However, beyond site acquisition and installing GI, another key component of this process is monitoring the pre- and post-implementation effects of GI on its known co-benefits such as stormwater runoff, biodiversity, and economic outcomes. Our efforts are directly in concert with The Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative’s Terra Firma project and Woodlawn’s Sustainable Square Mile, which includes the Emmett and Mamie Till-Mobley House, and the Mamie and Emmett Till Memorial Garden—all of which are owned, stewarded, and implemented by Blacks in Green.
This project involves close involvement with community partners, neighborhood groups, and residents to ensure community priorities are reflected in GI efforts. Authentic and inclusive community involvement will be consistently incorporated into all quality-of-life and environmental planning. The lessons learned from this project will provide important insights into how this can be done effectively.
What does a community-led BioBlitz look like?
A BioBlitz is a canvas of an area for all currently present flora and fauna, including insects, pollinators, and wildlife.
Delta and Blacks in Green hosted our 2023 BioBlitz held in coordination with BIG’s community Juneteenth Celebration. West Woodlawn residents came out to canvas and explore their neighborhood, and the insights and documentation from these citizen-scientists informed our BioBlitzs. Delta will use this baseline to determine impacts and expansion of biodiversity on these sites, and will incorporate said learnings into our future implementation roadmap deliverable. Please also read our press release celebrating the BioBlitz and BIG’s Juneteenth celebration.
Delta and South Merrill Community Garden hosted our 2024 BioBlitz in the South Shore neighborhood, with hundreds of residents joining us to document existing flora and fauna prior to planned installations of Green Infrastructure in 2025.
We deeply appreciate our many friends, West Woodlawn and South Shore residents, and BIG and South Merrill Community Gardens for sharing their spaces, wisdom, and communities with us.
Our Impact
Blacks in Green with collaboration by Delta installed GI at 6444 S. Langley Ave, Chicago, IL 60637 in December 2024 as part of the Sustainable Square Mile™ West Woodlawn. The site was designed to intercept rainwater from all surfaces tributary to the site through a permeable pavement system, perennial gardens, native trees, and bioretention. South Merrill Community Garden has taken many of the needed steps toward acquiring and installing GI at a large vacant lot at approximately 7048 S. Paxton Ave, Chicago, IL 60649. The site is undergoing community visioning to identify specific GI BMPs, but rain gardens, stormwater planters, vegetated filter strips and permeable pavement have been prioritized in early discussions and community surveys.
We collaborated to collectively offer learnings, best practices, and results with other stakeholders and practitioners to inform Green Infrastructure installation in other Chicago neighborhoods and throughout the broader Midwest. Following the installation of multiple Green Infrastructure sites, Delta created a suite of resources to be utilized by groups in disinvested communities to create a streamlined green infrastructure implementation, maintenance, and assessment strategy.
Assessing the Impact of Green Infrastructure in Urban Settings
Baseline measurements and modeled outcomes of stormwater capture potential, biodiversity, and economic and community conditions suggest that both the vacant lots in West Woodlawn and South Shore may benefit greatly from the installation of GI BMPs. Delta Institute will continue to partner with Blacks in Green and the South Merrill Community Garden, as well as research institutions such as Northwestern University to share successes, challenges, and lessons learned to create a replicable, community-led approach to installing GI BMPs on vacant lots.
Green Infrastructure Monitoring Guide
Delta Institute investigated the benefits of installing Green Infrastructure on vacant lots in the South Side neighborhoods of Chicago. This GI Monitoring Guide provides recommended approaches to consistently and routinely investigate and monitor the effects of GI installation on vacant lot biodiversity, stormwater capture, and community co-benefits.
Partners
Delta Institute is deeply appreciative to a wide array of partners and collaborators. In particular, we wuld like to thank our project partners for contributing their thoughts, experience, and acumen to our work:
- Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative
- Blacks in Green
- South Merrill Community Garden
- The Field Museum
- Chicago Botanic Garden
- Carter School of Excellence
- Church of the Good Shepherd
- Burke Elementary School
- University of Chicago Charter School – Woodlawn
- Metropolitan Planning Council
- Numerous community organizations, residents, neighbors, and Citizen Scientists
Delta Institute is grateful to our funding partners whose generosity allows us to pursue the impact we hope to have in this work. Our funding partners include:
- Walder Foundation
- The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
- The McDougal Family Foundation
- Bank of America Charitable Foundation
- Anonymous Foundation
- Anonymous Corporate Partner
- US Bank
- Helen V. Brach Foundation
A very warm thank you to everyone who is collaborating with us, we appreciate you.