Resilient Building Code

Lotus is leading the technical team evaluating and recommending changes to the San Francisco building code to increase resilience of properties in the 100-year flood risk zone. Lotus has been guiding this interagency effort, including preparing outreach webinars and partnering with SPUR to host workshops, to provide background on the City’s multi-pronged flood resilience program and solicit input from the design and development community. 

More information on the webinars are available through SFPUC’s Linkedin page and SPUR’s event page.

San Francisco Flood Elevation Mapping

100-Year Storm Flood Risk Map

Lotus, along with Pathways Climate Institute, led the technical team that developed a new layer showing flood elevation zones for the 100-Year Storm Flood Risk Map for San Francisco. The flood elevation zones have also been incorporated into SF Planning’s Property Information Map. The team is continuing to assess climate change impacts (both sea level and rainfall intensities) to refine flood risk mapping and enhance preparedness throughout the San Francisco.

Read more about how to interpret and use the maps, and learn what else is being done to bolster the city’s flood resilience here!

King Tide flooding along the Embarcadero (photo: Peter Thoeny)

Floodwater Grant Guidebook

Lotus, along with InCommon, designed and developed a new and improved Floodwater Grant Guidebook that is now available on the SFPUC website. The Floodwater Grant program provides San Francisco residents with a mechanism to obtain funding for site level flood protection improvements. Lotus leads the technical team that continues to develop floodwater grant guidance materials and conduct site assessments.

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Lotus Speaks to Youth Watershed Stewards

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Lotus Water has been partnering with The Watershed Project (TWP) in their Youth Watershed Stewards curriculum program with various high schools throughout San Francisco. The program aims to empower future generations of water stewards, by teaching local high schoolers about watersheds and the water cycle, water conservation, green infrastructure (GI), rain cistern maintenance, and careers in GI. The high schoolers then “buddy up” with younger elementary school students to pass on their acquired knowledge, working together to fix and maintain existing cisterns that have been installed in those elementary schools with help from TWP.

As part of the partnership, TWP invited Lotus to speak with different classes at John O’Connell High School and Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, leading activities like hands-on learning to design their own GI and capture-reuse systems using birdhouses and household supplies — sponges as bioretention, cups as cisterns, and tubes as gutters — to simulate stormwater capture and retention in action. At O’Connell, Terrence Ngu described differences between civil engineering and landscape architecture, and how landscape architects can design GI beyond stormwater performance to incorporate aesthetic value and co-benefits for communities. Students had a chance to see a Bay Area example of how cisterns and reuse can be integrated into public spaces by watching a video of Orange Memorial Park in South San Francisco.

At Galileo, Lotus staff spoke about civil engineering and the design process for GI, from site visit and feasibility assessment, to concept and detail design, to construction management. Students learned about the different considerations needed for each project phase and how this process leads to the finished site. Students remarked how cool it was see the built environment come to life—to think through, design, and build something physically—as opposed to creating an intangible app or other digital product that’s so common in the tech industry.

It was invigorating to have a chance to spend time with the students - Lotus looks forward to continuing to collaborate with TWP to share our expertise with curious minds and hopefully inspire some of the next leaders in managing our waters!

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TechWomen GI Walking Tour

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At the end of October, Lotus had the opportunity to meet an inspiring group of multinational professionals focused on green tech and sustainability as part of a month-long TechWomen exchange program to empower women leaders in STEM from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East. Along with San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's Kenneth Kortkamp, Lotus led a tour of green infrastructure around the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco’s central waterfront and one of the city’s rare separated stormwater areas. The group was eager to see how projects are transforming industrial swaths into vibrant spaces for the community, while integrating stormwater strategies that mimic natural processes to improve water quality, reduce flooding, promote water reuse, and protect against rising seas, AND exploring innovative construction methods and materials. Lotus had such a great time exchanging ideas and lessons learned with the group, who hailed from 4 countries with diverse technical backgrounds - we hope they learned as much as we did!

STEM leaders from the TechWomen exchange program who joined our tour included:

Map of Mission Bay GI Tour route

Mariposa Bayfront Park: pump station retrofitted to first route adjacent flows to vegetated swales for biotreatment before reaching the Bay

GI lessons from SFPUC at Mission Creek Stormwater Park bioretention basin

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Project Updates - Tis the Construction Season!

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2023 has been a busy, busy year for construction projects at Lotus Water, and as the year wraps up, here’s a sneak peek on construction progress.

Sonoma Ranch Institute - Sonoma County, CA

Sonoma Ranch Institute—a vision for a learning laboratory of design, regenerative agriculture, and sustainable land stewardship—is deep into the construction of Phase Two, which includes grading the majority of the site, establishing new road alignments, installing site utilities and irrigation, and constructing new conveyance swales and bioretention basins. The site has made significant progress and the contractor is racing to finish work within the onsite stormwater reservoir before El Niño kicks into full gear this rainy season. This 7 acre-foot reservoir, adapted to meet the site’s sustainability goals of self-sufficient water use, will eventually capture and store rainfall to meet sitewide irrigation and fire prevention water needs.

California College of the Arts - San Francisco, CA

A year after the California College of the Arts (CCA) extension campus in San Francisco resumed again in 2022, construction is humming along with the campus’ massive indoor-outdoor structure rising above the entire superblock. Surrounding street improvements for the project have also been approved after several rounds of review with the City. Check out the live-feed cam of the campus’ ongoing progress here!

Mission Bay Bayfront Park P-22 - San Francisco, CA

Part of the open-space network along the new Mission Bay waterfront, Park P-22 has made significant progress in grading the site and adding terrain through geofoam and backfill. All bioretention basins have been excavated and lined, while trees and planting installation for the basins and park have begun to take shape in time for the start of the Warrior’s regular season.

2023 Company Retreat

Since the pandemic, the Lotus team has expanded remotely beyond the Bay Area, with employees hailing from the Pacific Northwest, up the Rockies, and across to the East Coast. While we love seeing everyone in our weekly lunchtime staff meetings on Teams, there’s no replacement for spending time all together in the same place to exchange ideas, problem-solve, catch up….and go on safari?!… That’s right - thiis year, Lotus brought together the entire team from across four states for our a first-ever overnight retreat in Santa Rosa, hosted at Safari West. The team kicked off the morning with small-group workshops and breakout activities to envision company goals, culture, ways to balance the convenience of remote work and the collaborative benefits of in-person interaction, and how to best align projects with Lotus’ values and mission.

Of course, no trip to Safari West would be complete without a tour of its 400-acre free-range preserve. With important business planning and staff recognition awards wrapped up, it was time for the retreat’s main event. Starting with a walking tour of the preserve’s aviary habitats, our expert guides shared a brief history of the safari’s conservation mission and introduced us to a flamboyance of flamingos and other colorful birds before guiding us on a grand tour of the preserve in restored military jeeps. Complete with the sweltering inland air of late spring to properly transport us to the African savanna, we not only saw unique mammals like the aoudad, but learned fascinating trivia, while taking turns braving the blazing sun to enjoy prime views from the rooftop seats.

As our day at the safari wrapped up and evening crept in, the team headed up to a house nestled in the hills of Santa Rosa for sunset drinks by the pool and dinner locally catered by Epicurean Escape, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and setting to share good food and laughs with each other. Though departing early the next morning was a struggle for some, the retreat was a wonderful reminder of why we all have chosen to work together at Lotus to tackle projects that seek new ways of protecting and managing water resources for our communities.

A playful baby southern white rhino, the crowd favorite

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Team Events in 2022

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Always up for taking advantage of gorgeous weather in the Bay and opportunities to break up the routine of WFH, Zoom calls, GIS, or H&H modelling, the Lotus team still finds time to get together for outdoor fun, food, laughs…and a rare chance to see each other IRL!

Spring Fling // Oakland Waterfront

Our spring event was the perfect opportunity to check out Brooklyn Basin and Township Commons, a beautiful public park plaza on the Oakland waterfront, whose design by Einwiller Kuehl integrates community priorities, sea level rise adaptation, and sustainable stormwater features with the area’s rich shipping history.

After an amazing lunch at Brotzeit Lokal biergarten (Oktoberfest in May, because why not?), we strolled (and kayaked!) along the water to Township Commons for music, suprisingly competitive games of Spikeball and Throw Throw Burrito, and just kicking it. Throughout the afternoon, we observed how thoughtful public spaces like the Brooklyn Basin can recall its historic past in design elements echoing the spacing of the former loading docks. We also saw how spaces can adapt to a post-Covid world; the large, open spaces at the Basin easily allowed for social distancing, while its waterfront location lends itself to be a destination for all kinds of recreation and activities. It was wonderful to see the park full of people roller skating, running, playing with their dogs, and to be reminded how important shared open spaces are to creating connection and community.

(footage courtesy of Brooklyn Basin/Township Commons)

Fall Picnic // Presidio of San Francisco

Once again inspired by innovative design and a new waterfront park, the Lotus team gathered for an afternoon picnic at San Francisco’s new Presidio Tunnel Tops Park in early October. Over frosty drinks, a spread from Souvla and Gregory’s Underground Bakery, and frisbee with furry friends, the team enjoyed a chilly but beautiful sunset while exploring the 14-acre park overlooking Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Despite the wind and a strong appearance by Karl the Fog, we toured the grounds to appreciate various design elements included by the James Corner Field Operations team. Partitioned spaces of lawns, meadows, outlooks, and outposts throughout the park allow for varied programming and a plethora of gatherings to take place simultaneously. Imaginative nature-inspired seating areas made of tree trunks, reclaimed wood, and boulders are sprinkled throughout for visitors to take a load off and enjoy the views. The design also incorporates bioretention areas to manage stormwater, infiltration galleries for groundwater recharge, and sea level rise and saltwater intrusion measures along the park’s lower outpost play area.

We had a blast together and look forward to exploring other new parks being built around the Bay, including India Basin Waterfront Park and Lotus’ own Mission Bay Bayfront Park!

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And the Winner is....

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2022 was quite a year for Lotus! Having the opportunity to work on projects that tackle important water challenges and community priorities is itself immensly rewarding, and getting recognized with industry and professional awards — especially multiple awards — just sweetens the pot. Lotus is grateful for all the hard work our staff and project partners dedicate to seeking out innovative solutions that reimagine how we manage and protect our shared water resources. Here are just some of our achievements in 2022:

Orange Memorial Park Regional Stormwater Capture + Reuse Project

  • Project of the Year, American Public Works Association (APWA) of Silicon Valley

  • Environment + Parks Award, American Public Works Association (APWA) of Silicon Valley

  • Outstanding Stormwater Capture & Use Project, California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA)

  • Outstanding Environmental Engineering Project, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) San Francisco

city + regional officials and project partners celebrate the project’s ribbon-cutting in June 2022.

Completed in spring 2022, the Orange Memorial Park Regional Stormwater Capture + Reuse Project is the first project of its kind in Northern California, diverting flows from the Colma Creek Flood Control Channel into the park for pretreatment and harnessing the treated water for park irrigation and replenishing the groundwater aquifer.

Lotus has been honored to receive multiple awards in recognition of the project’s innovative design, which not only achieves multiple interagency goals around water quality, flood resilience, and sustainability, but was funded in part by a $6M collaborative grant negotiated between the City of South San Franciso/Lotus, Caltrans, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB). The success of this project is helping pave the way for other regional stormwater projects being planned around the Bay Area.

San Francisco Civic Center Public Space Plan

  • Honor Award - Analysis and Planning Category, American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

Image Credit: CMG

Recently selected to receive the 2022 ASLA Honor Award in the Analysis and Planning Category, the Civic Center Public Space Plan develops a vision for transforming the heart of the City of San Francisco into a thriving public realm that meets multiple objectives—including inclusion, community, diversity, and resilience. Lotus Water collaborated with the consultant team—led by CMG—and various city agencies and stakeholder groups to develop a district-scale green infrastructure and water reuse measures ranging from detention, infiltration, and passive harvest-reuse irrigation all integrated into the redesigned social spaces.

The proposed sustainable water management plan could save 7.6 million gallons of drinking water, capture 2.3 million gallons of stormwater, and divert 5.5 million gallons of wastewater from entering the city's combined sewer system annually. The district-scale water system also proposes to provide an emergency supply of potable water during natural disasters.

Congratulations to all the teams - let’s carry that positive momentum into the new year!

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Upper Islais Creek: A New Approach to Community Flood Resiliency

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Prior to development and building of the I-280 freeway, Islais Creek flowed along what is now Alemany Boulevard, making its way through San Francisco from the city’s southern boundary out to the Bay. The Cayuga and Lower Alemany areas of San Francisco sit along this low-lying historic creek path and represent two of the most challenging flood problem areas within the City. After years of engineering analysis, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) proposed a 10-foot diameter tunnel to address the flooding in these areas. However, seeing that larger storms could still result in flooding and that the benefits of the tunnel project were limited to a smaller subset of San Francisco residents, the SFPUC also asked that a watershed-wide alternative be investigated, one that could provide comparable flood resilience as the tunnel while spreading more environmental and community benefits to a wider spectrum of residents. This request led to the Upper Islais Creek Watershed Flood Resiliency Project and development of the Upper Islais Creek Watershed Plan (the Plan).

To create the Plan, Lotus and the project team developed new methods of analyzing and quantifying long-term flood resilience and community benefits. The team conducted 2-D hydraulic and hydrologic (H&H) modeling analyses over a wide range of storms to create new multi-storm metrics and visual outputs that displayed how flood depth, risk, and damage varied based on different proposed improvements. The team also integrated new environmental and social benefit metrics and visual outputs into the analysis, such as increased biodiversity, reduced heat stress, and increased access to green space

The expected annualized flood depth (EAFD) shows the flood depth calculated by spreading out multiple storm probabilities and magnitudes equally over time (a discrete time period is not selected). Annualized depth does not mean the depth shown on the map would be seen every year (because this a longer term averaging of flood depths). While EAFD does not directly translate into an immediately usable statistic, it provides for comparison across projects visually showing which areas are expected to see the deepest flooding most frequently. This can be recategorized into a “risk score” to provide more value. (Lotus + Pathways Climate Institute)

Using the new approaches, the team developed the Plan—which includes 100 acres of drainage management area (DMA) for green infrastructure to be constructed over 15 years and 7 million gallons (MG) of storage to be constructed over 8 years—that together will soak up stormwater and slow down the combined sewer flows to attenuate peak flows during flooding events. It also includes multi-purpose floodable open space as part of a protect corridor that keeps flooding from even the most extreme storm events away from people and property, providing improved long-term resilience that factors in the impacts of climate change. The protect corridor also reconfigures the streetscape to improve bike and pedestrian safety, reduce noise and air quality impacts, and increase neighborhood connectivity. The Plan reimagines the surface of the city into multi-function roadways and spaces configured to safely manage larger storms while also providing additional community benefits.

Working closely with the city and a multi-disciplinary team, Lotus was instrumental in analyzing the green infrastructure and storage locations to optimize flood reduction, while also finding synergies with other city agency projects planned in this location, to maximize multi-benefits and leverage combined funding opportunities. As the impact of climate change on infrastructure systems and our communities is felt more and more frequently, a new way of planning, designing, and funding projects for future conditions is needed. Lotus is excited to continue our collaboration with the SFPUC to be leaders in this field.

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Breaking Ground: New California College of the Arts Campus

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Despite a prolongued delay due to the ongoing pandemic, construction for the new California College of the Arts (CCA) extension campus in San Francisco succesfully resumed in 2022. The CCA gathered with the community, city officials, and the project team in November to officially celebrate with a ceremonial groundbreaking and reception showcasing the campus’ vision of sustainability.

Designed by a team led by Studio Gang, the new campus will feature overlapping courtyards and plazas that tie in a campus vision of interdisciplinary practice, engagement, and connection to the surrounding urban neighborhood. Both the construction process and the completed campus’ functionality are meant to be resource efficient. Lotus provided all civil engineering design for the campus and public realm spaces from concept phase through final design, and continues to provide support during construction.

 

live webcam of the work site

“To fuel culture and industry, a great city needs a great art school. CCA is building the most exciting urban art and design campus in the country, the only independent, privately endowed art and design school in Northern California. We educate students to meet the many challenges of our world with creative problem-solving, to become the innovators and game-changers of the future,” said Stephen Beal, President of CCA. “We know that diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to innovation and that educating students from diverse backgrounds is essential to realizing the full potential of art and design to positively impact the future of our communities,” said President Beal. “These valued organizations share our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the arts and design. Together, we are empowering talented students from historically underinvested communities to focus not only on their education but on becoming creative leaders who will make powerful contributions to shape our world.”

We’re excited to watch this project unfold and come to life!

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Seeds of Innovation: Resilient Design Competition

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In September 2022, Lotus Water participated in the Water Flows Forward - Seeds of Innovation: Resilient Design Competition, hosted by The Water Collaborative, a grassroots organization in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s competition challenged teams to develop a floating planter box for indigenous communities in Louisiana’s Grand Bayou Village, a region rich with culture and history. Given the area’s unique coastal setting and vulnerability to land subsidence, water levels, and climate change, bayou communities need an adaptable planter box with the flexibility to float while planted, withstand brackish water, be transportable both on land and in water, and integrate a water catchment system.

Inspired by the opportunity to help communities build resilience and find a solution for food security, we assembled a multi-disciplinary team of engineers and planners to put our water resource minds together to create a design that was multi-functional and a reflection of the local community in New Orleans.

Our Design

The Pirogue Planter pays homage to the pirogue boats used throughout the bayous of Southern Louisiana. The planter’s innovative and modular design provides removable planter boxes, rainwater harvesting and storage, accessibility options, as well as land and water mobility. Designed for current and future conditions as sea levels rise and coastal communities, such as the Grand Bayou Village, lose land to subsidence and flooding, the Pirogue Planter reflects the communities’ culture while providing a flexible solution for food and medicinal sovereignty.

Pirogue Planter (shown with rainwater catchment wings engaged) has flexibility to grow plants both on land and while afloat in water.

Pirogue Planter - Key Components:

Boat shell - made of powder-coated aluminum to withstand saltwater exposure and prevent rusting. Powder-coating can be customized to showcase local identity and traditional colors. The shell geometry allows for vertical stacking and lateral tesselation, streamlining efficient storage and transport at scale.

Planter boxes – removable t-shaped aluminum planter boxes, with drainage holes, that provide soil depths of 6” through 22”. The range of planting depth was selected to allow for a variety of food and medicinal crops, such as the “Three Sisters”, to be grown together sustainably.

Rainwater catchment wings - panels of the upper hull can swing out and be locked in place using a sofa ratchet hinge, creating an angled plane that captures rainwater and routes flows through a perforated false bottom into a reservoir.

Reservoir - the boat bottom stores rainwater for watering plants. Drainage holes in the bottom of the planters, which sit above and extend into the reservoir, allow plants to access stored water through capillary action. The intermediate false bottom has two reservoir access lids where collected rainwater can also be used for hand-watering the planter or other nearby plants in the community.

Drainpipe - a drainage opening in the bottom of the boat leads to an exterior drainpipe that can be adjusted to control the depth of water storage in the reservoir. A check valve prevents brackish water from entering the reservoir when afloat. This drainpipe system still allows drainage from the reservoir when the planter is afloat even if the interior water level exceeds the water level outside the boat.

Although the Lotus team did not win the design competition, the opportunity for our staff to collaborate in new ways, stretch our creative problem-solving muscles, and apply our expertise where it’s needed most was so rewarding. It’s not every day that our team gets to perform buoyancy calcs, analyze capsize stability, and research planting almanacs! Congrats to the winners - check out their inspiring designs here.

Lotus looks forward to continuing to work with communities to plan, design, and build for resilience on future projects and competitions!

Modular deployment of floating Pirogue Planter in water

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Water Needs in the Bay Area's Vulnerable Communities

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A Regional Water Needs Assessment report, led by the Disadvantaged Community and Tribal Involvement (DACTI) Program and funded by the Integrated Regional Water Management Program's (IRWM’s) Proposition 1, was released in September 2022. The report is the culmination of four years of research and findings from 13 individual needs assessment processes that were conducted between 2017 and 2021 by community-based partners—from a Tribal needs assessment process administered by five Tribal Outreach Partners and from the peer-to-peer needs assessment—to understand how people experiencing homelessness or poverty are accessing water for drinking, sanitation, and hygiene. Lotus’ Community-Involvement Planner, Maddie Duda, was the lead author and community liaison for the report.

The needs assessments revealed how strikingly similar priorities for water management are across the participating Disadvantaged Communities and Tribes. Many communities shared:

  • a distrust for tap water quality and safety

  • concerns about flooding related to storm surges, sea level rise, and groundwater rise

  • concerns about lack of access to green space and nature — including creeks, rivers, and the ocean — for recreation.

The report’s Regional Connections section summarizes these priorities, best practices for making grant programs more equitable and accessible to Disadvantaged Community groups and Tribes, and other overall recommendations from the San Francisco Bay Area IRWM Region DACTI Program.

This report is the product of the collective work of many partners that was spearheaded by DACTI with a goal of amplifying the voices of DACTI groups and people experiencing homelessness, and incorporating their needs into the planning process. Ultimately, the report serves to keep the San Francisco Bay Area region accountable to achieving the California Right to Water law enacted in 2012 that guarantees that “every human being has a right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.”

Fieldwork Meets GIS: Bioregional Habitat Restoration Support

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) Alameda and Peninsula Watersheds consist of a combined 53,000 acres of diverse and unique habitats ranging from oak woodlands and coniferous forests, to serpentine grasslands, to a variety of uses including grazing, plant nurseries, and quarry operations. Much of these expanses is remote and difficult to access, complicating the management of infrastructure assets, water resources, and native plant and animal life.

Over the course of numerous site visits and hours of fieldwork, Lotus collected field data and created maps to establish an inventory of Bioregional Habitat Restoration (BHR) conservation easement assets for the SFPUC in coordination with the Land Trust as part of long-term management of the BHR sites throughout Alameda and San Mateo Counties. In collaboration with asset management, biological resources, and GIS specialists, Lotus created a feature-rich geospatial database of over 350 unique site assets, including 230 assets which had not been previously mapped.

Granular asset data was collected real-time in the field using ESRI’s Collector app, including photographs, measurements, condition analysis, maintenance recommendations, and precise physical location. Asset maps were created both digitally (as interactive, zoomable web maps and full attribute table availability on-click) and statically (as carefully crafted PDF maps with illustrative labeling and symbology), supporting GIS layers such as utilities and boundaries, and detailed annotations. Additionally, Lotus worked closely with Avila & Associates to provide biological support services with on-site habitat and species surveys, and wildlife and plant monitoring and management support to ensure that the BHR assets and easements met regulatory compliance for resource protection.

The Lotus team embraced the opportunity to use the power of technology to help enhance ongoing and future BHR work and looks forward to expanding our web-based tools on other asset management projects!

Imagine A Day Without Water, v2.0

“Imagine Track A Day Without Water”

For Lotus Water’s second year participating in the US Water Alliance’s Imagine a Day Without Water, our staff participated in a daily water usage tracking exercise. We invited our staff to take one day to document their water usage from dawn to midnight. The process was meant to gather data (we are engineers after all!), but was designed more to encourage personal reflection and focus awareness on our relationship with water. Living in an urbanized area, most of us don’t think twice about where our water comes from, frequently flipping the tap on and off throughout the day. But here in California, drought is never far from our minds and as a water-focused engineering firm, we work with water all day. Yet, the 11 staff who participated all remarked that tracking their water usage for just one day truly illuminated how little attention we pay to this precious natural resource.

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“Timing water use is humbling.”

>> Maddie Duda, Community Involvement Planner <<

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Our reflections ranged from noticing just how much water is used to wash dishes by hand, to acknowledging there’s room to improve efficiency in keeping the greenery going for those with yards and houseplants. A few people described household strategies to conserve water by capturing shower water or having laundry-to-landscaping set up. And of course, COVID has altered our relationship with water – more handwashing, keeping up with laundry, dishes, and overall cleaning in our own homes.

 

Yesterday—one day before Imagine a Day Without Water—was a rude, though fitting, awakening for Kelsey Wilson:

“I woke up at 6am, used the bathroom and soaped up my hands. Half asleep, I went to turn the tap on – gurgling and creaking pipes startled me out of my slumber. No water came out. I looked confusingly at the toilet and sink – the toilet had flushed but no water in the faucet. I tried the kitchen sink – empty pipes rumbling. I knew I had a bucket of water outside from my showers that was for plant watering and wandered out to finish rinsing my hands. When I came back into the kitchen I nodded in confirmation as I saw I had a jug of drinking water sitting on the counter. A quick check of my water provider’s website showed a water main had burst and they had shut off all water in my vicinity. Glad to know what was going on I felt relieved – a few hours later the water returned to the faucet. Yet for those few hours I knew what it felt like to have no water readily available. “

>> Kelsey Wilson, Urban Watershed Planner

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Others reflected on the physical movement of water throughout our living spaces and the ways we are so accustomed to just turning on the tap.

“It flowed through our water service lateral pipe, through our plumbing and in via one of our taps in the kitchen or bathroom. It was transported throughout the apartment in mugs, bottles, cups, and appliances. Household plants soaked it up and evapotranspired it. It flowed through me into the toilet, and then it flowed out through our wastewater pipe to the sewer.”

>> Jack Brown, Water Resources Engineer

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Being able to flip a knob and see clean water fill a glass or used water disappear down a drain is nearly effortless for most of California, but that’s not the case for the 2.2 BILLION people worldwide who can’t access clean water, nor the 4.2 BILLION without safe sanitation. Continued investment in water and wastewater infrastructure needs to be prioritized to ensure all our communities have access—now and into the future—to clean, affordable water that’s essential to everyday life.

Reflecting on our water use as a team also made us contemplate how to better advocate for this important resource in our work and daily lives, not only within the industry but to policy and lawmakers, and throughout the communities around us.

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“I've always been really interested in how many of our systems are set up to hide our use and waste from us -- we see faucets and drains and trash cans, but no collection of that water or our accumulation of trash over time. If we had to sit with/see these things all the time, might we all be more motivated to reduce our use?”

>> Maddie Duda, Community Involvement Planner

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Rain has been falling in the Bay Area the past few days, bringing much needed precipitation to the drought-stricken state. As we rejoice in this rainfall, let us not lose sight of this precious resource and continue to look for new ways to conserve water while investing in innovative solutions that support our infrastructure and the natural water cycle.

Celebrating Women + Water

March marks both Women’s History Month and World Water Day, and Lotus is highlighting ongoing gender inequity issues related to water, while celebrating the crucial role that women play as experts and agents of change in achieving universal access to water and sanitation.

2.2 billion people worldwide still lack access to safe drinking water, and women + girls are disproportionately affected by the lack of access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), often bearing a larger responsibility than males for daily activities that rely on water, such as providing water for drinking, cooking, sanitation, and hygiene. Yet, women are regrettably underrepresented in the water sector at just 18%, despite representing nearly 50% of the global population. As primary providers, managers, and users of water at home, women have unique perspectives that are critical to informing and driving productive change in the design and maintenance of water systems, water distribution, water health, and policymaking for our communities and planet as a whole.

adapted from Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers (World Bank, 2019)

adapted from Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers (World Bank, 2019)

Representation Matters

Improving representation is part of the pathway to achieving gender equality in water, and Lotus is proud to count 68% women among its talented team of planners, designers, and engineers. Representation matters, not only because "If she can see it, she can be it”, but also because seeing women in prominent roles—whether it’s as mentors, advocates, technical experts, hiring managers, or decision makers—sets an example of what’s possible for all of us, building confidence in and inspiring future generations of female talent and male peers alike.

In recognition of the accomplishments that women continue to make in the water world, we asked our Lotus team to name women who have made an impact on shaping their professional paths into water.

STEFANI HARRISON

Stefani is a planner, engineer, and project manager whose expertise runs as deep as it does broad, spanning from Left Coast (SF Bay Area) to Right Coast (Boston Area), from wet infrastructure design to resilience policy development, and leading teams as both a consultant and from within the public sector.

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- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “In addition to exceptional technical aptitude, Stefani has that rare ability to truly listen, empathize, and perceptively read a room to pinpoint key concerns + priorities, see + reconcile what’s at odds, map out a path forward, and then thoughtfully craft the right story that will resonate with each party involved. Seeing her balance quick + efficient analysis with measured + patient consensus-building is really quite remarkable, and showed me just how crucial an effective communication strategy is to the ultimate success of a project.”

-Amy Kam

JANE JACOBS

Jane Jacobs was a 1960s activist who fought for equal pay for women, the right to unionize, and perhaps most notably, organized her neighborhood to oppose the construction of new high-rises and a new expressway as part of “slum clearance” plans for Greenwich Village. As a self-taught woman in the male-dominated field of urban + city planning, Jacobs tenaciously challenged established planning practices, and staunchly advocated for mindful development that preserves diversity and empowers local citizens to advocate for their community.

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- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “As a young engineer, I was focused on improving the environment, but I wasn't very aware of our ability to impact people's experience within the public realm. Learning about Jane Jacobs and reading her books really introduced me to urban planning and changed how I thought about my role as an engineer. Because of her, I became more interested in how to weave urban planning into civil engineering through projects and policies that bring people together, preserve economic + cultural diversity, and create vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods. This permanently changed the focus and trajectory of my career.”

-Scott Durbin

KIMBERLY O’CONNELL

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Kimberly manages UC San Diego’s Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES ) permit + environmental compliance programs related to stormwater pollution prevention. She also runs AQUAholics Anonymous, a collaborative of UCSD students, staff and faculty that works to encourage water conservation on campus.

- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “Kimberly, my first internship supervisor, oversees UCSD's stormwater compliance. She has been a key mentor in shaping my interest in the subject, from learning about stormwater to guiding me to a career and graduate school focused on stormwater design.”

-Terrence Ng

ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

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Dr. Kimmerer is a scientist and award-winning author, whose work draws on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge in advancing sustainability goals and restoring ecological health + our relationship to the land.

- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “Robin inspires me because she masterfully combines science, ecology, and traditional ecological knowledge in both her writing and advocacy.”

-Kelsey Wilson

ALISA VIALPANDO

Alisa has been designing + managing engineering land development projects from concept through construction for over 3 decades, leading teams of engineers and inspiring teammates along the way.

- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “I was accustomed to being one of a very small handful of women engineers in college and in the workplace until I joined Alisa's team in my mid-twenties. She managed a large team of engineers, of which half were women, and provided my first real example of a successful engineer, leader, and mom.”

-Lotus Engineer

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Orange Memorial Park Undergoing Major Renovation

Orange Memorial Park is getting a makeover starting with what lies underneath. Starting March 22, 2021, residents will see construction fencing lining a portion of the park to get ready for Phase One of the Orange Memorial Improvement Project, consisting of a Regional Stormwater Capture Project that will provide water quality improvements to meet the requirements of the San Francisco Bay Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit (MRP). The project is designed to reduce discharges of PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls), which have been linked to a variety of adverse health effects, and mercury to the San Francisco Bay.

“This regional project, which is spearheaded by our City, will provide multiple benefits in addition to improving water quality, including reducing localized flooding and reusing treated water for irrigation and groundwater recharge,” said South San Francisco Mayor Mark Addiego. “We’re excited that we are leading this effort as the first of its kind in the Bay Area, in hopes that this encourages others to do similar projects that will ultimately benefit our health and the environment.”

(image: incommon)

How it Works

Once water is diverted into the park, the system treats the water to remove trash, debris, and sediment. Pretreated water will then enter a pipe leading to an underground cistern located under the sports field for further treatment and disinfection so it can be used to meet irrigation and other non-potable demands, which includes irrigation to the park and along portions of Centennial Trail. When full, the cistern overflows into an infiltration gallery which will provide groundwater recharge benefits. Construction of a stormwater capture system will occur underneath a portion of the existing baseball and softball fields, and along the picnic area.

(image: incommon)

This project helps clean water flowing from our cities to the Bay. The reach of Colma Creek running through Orange Memorial Park drains over 6,500 acres of land from six different municipalities, including the City of South San Francisco. This regional stormwater capture project, the first of its kind in Northern California, diverts all dry-weather flow and the first flush of urban stormwater runoff from Colma Creek into an underground system integrated within the park. Overall, 200 million gallons of water, or 15 percent of the annual flow in Colma Creek, pass through the system for treatment and beneficial use.

The Phase One project is funded through a $15.5M cooperation implementation agreement with Caltrans to help satisfy its pollutant load reduction.

What About the Sports Fields?

Revitalizing the sports fields is Phase Two of the Orange Memorial Improvement Project, which will also include pavement restoration and other associated surface improvements. This multi-sport, all-weather field will include:

  • Electronic scoreboards

  • Synthetic turf

  • Sports field lighting

  • Enhanced planting areas

  • Spectator areas

  • One adult/teen softball diamond with dugouts, bullpens, and batting cage

  • Two youth baseball diamonds with dugouts and bullpens

  • Two adult soccer fields with portable goals

  • Two junior soccer fields with portable goals

  • Four youth soccer fields with portable goals

  • Drinking fountains

“Determining what this multi-sport, all-weather field will look like was the result of many community meetings, where we heard from a variety of sports representatives in terms of how they envision the future of this field,” said Sharon Ranals, Parks and Recreation Director and Assistant City Manager.

“Having played on these fields in my youth, I know firsthand how valuable youth baseball is to our community. These field improvements and expansion will provide years of recreation and memories for generations to come,” added Vice Mayor Mark Nagales.

Schedule

Phase One construction begins March 22, 2021, continuing through Spring 2022.

Phase Two construction will begin in Spring 2022 with sports fields anticipated to reopen in Spring 2023.

Follow the progress of this project by visiting www.ssf.net/OMPImprovements and read more about Lotus’ role on the project here!

 
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Lotus Wins Overpass Challenge Award!

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Lotus is excited to be one of three winning teams selected for the 2020 Greater Milwaukee Green Infrastructure Overpass Challenge! The contest, funded by the Tellier Foundation and administered by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), is focused on reducing and treating polluted stormwater runoff, the biggest remaining threat to rivers and lakes across the US. Teams were challenged to identify new, innovative approaches to maximize the capture and treatment of runoff from interstate overpasses, while attaining other triple bottom line benefits such as activating otherwise neglected spaces.

Many cities are transforming transit underpasses—such as I-94 in Milwaukee—into public parks, replacing vacant lots, overgrown weeds, and dark passageways with art installations, pedestrian thoroughfares, and community amenities. (image: Google Eart…

Many cities are transforming transit underpasses—such as I-94 in Milwaukee—into public parks, replacing vacant lots, overgrown weeds, and dark passageways with art installations, pedestrian thoroughfares, and community amenities. (image: Google Earth)

Gathering Place by the Water

Water is of vital importance to Milwaukee, which sits at the confluence of 3 rivers and Lake Michigan. The city’s name fittingly means “gathering place by the water”, derived in part from Potawatomi (“manwaking”) and Ojibwe (“omaniwakiing”). Drawing inspiration from this rich heritage and identity, Lotus teamed with incommon to develop two prototype concepts that, in addition to achieving stormwater management objectives, would improve safety, enhance connectivity, and create gathering spaces for the community. Both designs would reconfigure the existing drainage pipe system from the freeway, connecting it to a new treatment system below, consisting of water treatment elements with the flexibility to be implemented individually or as a hybrid combination based on specific site conditions and needs.

Sculpture Park

The Sculpture Park concept manages water with a distributive approach, using modular components that are flexible in their implementation. The existing freeway drainage system would be routed down to a baffle box element that settles out sediment and other contaminants. Baffle boxes would be housed in sculptures designed in collaboration with local artists, inviting visitors to explore and interact with the park features, while also providing educational information about local flora and fauna.

Waterways Parklet

The Waterways Parklet concept is a more centralized treatment system well-suited for space-constrained sites, with vegetated wattle waterways that spiral down and around overpass columns, providing initial filtration as runoff is captured and conveyed below. The Waterways Parklet would provide air quality benefits, while introducing vertical wildlife habitat and vegetation to the site.

renderings by incommon

Both designs finish the water treatment process with a constructed wetland and bioretention elements that provide wildlife habitat, public interaction touch points, and community greening.

Tune in Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 10a PST to learn more about the Green Infrastructure Overpass winning designs.

 
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San Mateo County Streets Reimagined

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When is a street not just a street?

What if the streets in our communities were better designed to provide safety and protection for pedestrians and cyclists, help increase resilience against the effects of climate change, and beautify our neighborhoods?

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

To take the leap toward sustainable streets throughout the county, the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County (C/CAG) created the San Mateo Countywide Sustainable Streets Master Plan in collaboration with Caltrans under the Climate Adaptation Planning Grant Program. This long-term planning effort builds on years of watershed modeling and stakeholder input, and takes a closer look at how and where to build sustainable streets in San Mateo County that integrate stormwater management with local priorities, like bike and pedestrian mobility, transit improvements, climate change adaptation, and more. The plan also includes a down-scaled climate change analysis to better understand the potential future precipitation related impacts from climate change and how green stormwater infrastructure can help adapt to changing conditions.

Lotus—along with key project partners Alta Planning, Paradigm Environmental, and Urban Rain Design—worked with C/CAG to identify and prioritize sustainable street projects throughout the County, developing a scoring methodology to prioritize projects and a companion Green Infrastructure Tracking Tool website that summarizes sustainable infrastructure in San Mateo County and the benefits it provides for stormwater capture and climate resiliency.

Page through the complete plan and its associated documents here.

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Green Schoolyards From Award-Winning Grant Program

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Earlier this year, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) celebrated the one-year anniversary since the launch of its Green Infrastructure (GI) Grant Program, the City’s first large-scale GI grant program that provides funding to San Francisco property owners to capture and manage stormwater through GI. The first year of the GI Grant program saw many milestones, including an applicant workshop with over 100 participants, 6 project grants totaling $5M in funding, and winning a 2020 Outstanding Sustainable Stormwater Program Award from the California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA).

Today, we celebrate another exciting milestone - the first two grant projects have completed construction, just in time for the rainy season!

 
 

Bessie Carmichael Middle School

The SFPUC awarded San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) $0.4M, working with SFUSD’s Green Schoolyards program and additional funding, to transform the Bessie Carmichael schoolyard. The GI Grant Program funded:

  • Site soil remediation

  • A repaved and painted play yard

  • A mural to promote education around the environment and infrastructure through art

  • Three in-ground planted bioretention basins, and

  • Four above grade planters to manage roof and yard stormwater runoff.

Altogether these seven stormwater management BMPs will manage 275,000 gallons of stormwater annually within the Channel Watershed.


 

Lafayette Elementary School

An additional $0.5M was awarded to fund stormwater infrastructure improvements at Lafayette Elementary School, integrated into SFUSD’s building modernization project. The grant funded:

  • Two bioretention basins

  • A large planted dry creek bed to manage stormwater runoff from the play yard and a portion of the roof

  • New planters

  • Impervious surface removal, and

  • Educational signage throughout the yard.

The stormwater improvements will manage 350,000 gallons of stormwater annually in the Sunset Watershed.

Lotus Water continues to provide technical and programmatic support for the GI Grant Program, working closely with the SFPUC to develop the program guidebook, perform site visits at potential grant project sites, review applications and plan submissions, and provide construction administration services.  

Read more about the GI Grant Program here.