FEATURE

By Charlotte Stijnen

Charlotte, a PhD candidate in Human Geography and Spatial Planning, at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, recently embarked on a transformative research expedition. Awarded a NATURA Fellowship, she joined The New School’s Urban Systems Lab in New York City as a Visiting Scholar.

For three months, Charlotte immersed herself in the urban context of her doctoral case study, conducting fieldwork, and being an intrinsic part of USL. In this feature blog post, Charlotte recounts her experiences, insights, and reflections, emphasizing their impacts on her doctoral journey.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Tibbetts Brook Daylighting project in the Bronx aims to resurface a buried waterway, addressing combined sewage overflow issues while creating a new greenway corridor.
My research focuses on understanding the trade-offs and dilemmas in planning urban nature-based solutions, particularly their implications for environmental justice.
Interviews with diverse stakeholders, including city agencies, community groups, and local residents, provide multiple perspectives on the planning and design process of the daylighting project.
My position as an outsider presented challenges in connecting with local organizations, highlighting the importance of positionality in urban research.
My fellowship at the Urban Systems Lab (USL) provided valuable opportunities for in-depth research, site visits, and collaboration with other researchers, enhancing the overall study.

Doctoral Research Focus

My doctoral research investigates the inclusive governance of urban nature-based solutions (NbS), with a particular emphasis on trade-offs and dilemmas in their planning and governance, as well as the justice implications of these trade-offs throughout the planning cycle. This research trajectory began with a comprehensive scoping review of empirical evidence on urban NbS trade-offs, which subsequently directed my focus toward urban river daylighting processes.

Urban river daylighting, also known as de-culverting, is the process of restoring buried waterways to the surface. During the 19th and 20th centuries, many cities in the United States and around the world channeled streams and rivers into underground pipes, often integrating them with existing sewer systems. This practice, driven by rapid urban development, aimed to maximize buildable land and control flooding. Today, daylighting projects seek to reverse this trend, unveiling these hidden watercourses and reintegrating them into the urban landscape.

My selection of specific urban daylighting projects as doctoral case studies is driven by their inherent complexity, which involves intricate technical, social, and ecological considerations. The projects create significant changes in the urban fabric and necessitate collaboration among diverse stakeholders. This complexity makes urban river daylighting an ideal lens through which to examine the manifestation of trade-offs throughout the project lifecycle, how these trade-offs are addressed by various stakeholders, and the resulting implications for environmental justice.

By focusing on this specific type of urban NbS, my research aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities in implementing large-scale urban ecological interventions, particularly in relation to equity and justice concerns. This approach allows for a detailed exploration of how trade-offs emerge and evolve in complex urban environments, and how decisions made in response to these trade-offs can shape the distribution of benefits and burdens among different communities.

Ultimately, this research seeks to inform more equitable and effective practices in urban NbS implementation, bridging the gap between theoretical frameworks of environmental justice and the practical realities of urban ecological restoration.

Case Study: Tibbetts Brook Daylighting; Restoring Urban Waterways in The Bronx

The focal point of my current research is the Tibbetts Brook Daylighting project in Kingsbridge, Bronx, New York City. This case study offers a compelling narrative of urban ecological restoration intertwined with complex historical, social, and environmental factors.

Tibbetts Brook is a waterway with a rich history predating modern urban development. Originally, it flowed through what is now Kingsbridge, an area once characterized by marshlands, home to the Lenape people, who lived on and made use of these fertile grounds.

The arrival of Dutch colonists in approximately 1646 marked a significant turning point for the region. Driven by the agricultural potential of the marshlands, the settlers began to alter the landscape to suit their needs. A pivotal change came with the damming of Tibbetts Brook to power a sawmill, creating the pond that still exists in Van Cortlandt Park today. This pond, called Hester and Piero’s Mill pond, is named after the enslaved African miller and his wife who were forced to work on the Van Cortlandt Plantation.

As urbanization intensified in the early 20th century, the relationship between the city and its waterways underwent further transformation. Around 1910, in a move emblematic of the era's approach to urban planning, the southern portion of Tibbetts Brook was diverted into the Broadway sewer system. This diversion, coupled with extensive land-raising efforts to facilitate urban expansion, dramatically reshaped the topography and hydrology of Kingsbridge.

These historical developments set the stage for the current daylighting project, which aims to restore Tibbetts Brook as an open stream. This initiative represents not just an engineering challenge, but a complex negotiation between urban development, ecological restoration, and community needs.

Topography of Kingsbridge showing the former route of Tibbetts Brook, commissioned by the Department of Public Parks of the City of New York in 1874.
New York Public Library, accessed 2024.

The Tibbetts Brook daylighting project aims to resurface Tibbetts Brook from Van Cortlandt Park’s Hester and Piero's Mill Pond, guiding it alongside the Major Deegan Expressway to 230th Street. This ambitious endeavor utilizes a formerly abandoned railway line, owned by CSX, a private real estate group. By diverting the pond’s clean water from the sewer system to an open channel stream flowing into the Harlem River, the project tackles the pressing issue of combined sewage overflows (CSOs).

Current Tibbetts Brook daylighting plan showing sections of open and closed channel.
Starr Whitehouse, accessed 2024.

CSOs occur when heavy rainfall overwhelms sewer treatment capacity, forcing untreated sewage into waterways such as the Harlem River. The primary objective of daylighting is to mitigate these overflow events, thereby enhancing the river's water quality. While not designed as a comprehensive flood prevention solution, the daylight stream may help alleviate flooding during light to moderate rain events.

In addition to its environmental benefits, the project creates a greenway corridor adjacent to and above the stream. This new pathway will extend the Putnam Trail, part of the Empire State trail network, which currently runs through Van Cortlandt Park into Westchester County. As of now, the project remains in the planning and design phase, with recent progress including the official purchase of the CSX property by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks), the lead agencies spearheading this transformative initiative.

Research Approach

By examining the Tibbetts Brook Daylighting project, my research seeks to uncover the intricate trade-offs involved during the planning and design phases. The primary focus is on understanding how different priorities and interests, represented by various stakeholder groups, have converged or led to potential dilemmas throughout the planning process.

To address this question, the study adopts a broader perspective on trade-offs, examining how they manifest in urban development issues, governance processes, and functional design choices for the stream and greenway corridor. Moreover, the research seeks to connect these planning and design trade-offs and tensions with their implications for various dimensions of environmental justice. This includes analyzing whose priorities and interests are incorporated into the plans and designs, who is recognized during decision-making processes, and to what extent biodiversity is considered. Additionally, the study examines how perceptions of costs and benefits are distributed across different constituencies.

CALL Buried Brook walk following the historic route of Tibbetts Brook.
Charlotte Stijnen, 2024.

The research methodology involves conducting interviews with two distinct groups of stakeholders. The first group comprises actors directly involved in the project, such as city agencies, engineers, landscape architects, and community organizations. Notable among these are the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality (BCEQ), which has advocated for daylighting for decades, and City As Living Laboratory (CALL), which has engaged in arts-based community outreach about Tibbetts Brook. The second group consists of local residents of Kingsbridge, business owners or employees in the neighborhood, and park users. Their perspectives are crucial for understanding the broader community perception of the Tibbetts Brook daylighting project, including potential support or tensions.

Through these interviews, the research aims to gain insights into the planning and design process from diverse lenses of expertise and experience. This approach allows for a comprehensive understanding of the project's complexities and the various stakeholder perspectives that have shaped its development.

Reflecting on the Research Process

Conducting interviews for this study proved to be an enriching experience. Most interviewees shared detailed, in-depth accounts of their experiences with Tibbetts Brook, often revealing the passion driving efforts to daylight the waterway. These conversations provided valuable insights into the community's engagement with the project.

A significant challenge I encountered was connecting with local organizations not directly involved in the daylighting process but likely to have opinions on such a large-scale neighborhood project. As an outsider to New York City, and particularly to the local networks in Kingsbridge, establishing these connections required considerable time and effort.

This experience prompted me to reflect on my positionality as a foreign researcher and its potential impact on the connections I could forge—a consideration I had anticipated before arriving in NYC. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the openness and willingness of participants to share their opinions and experiences, for which I am deeply grateful.

Fellowship at USL: A Catalyst for Research

My three-month fellowship at USL, facilitated by the NATURA Network and supported by Dr. Timon McPhearson, significantly enhanced my research on the Tibbetts Brook daylighting initiative. This experience proved invaluable for several reasons:

In-depth local engagement: The extended stay allowed me to not only conduct stakeholder interviews but also attend community meetings and events related to Tibbetts Brook, providing a comprehensive understanding of the project's context.
Site visits and spatial understanding: Personal visits to the project site offered a tangible impression of its scale and the area's dynamics, enriching my perspective beyond theoretical knowledge.
Collaborative learning environment: Interactions with fellow researchers at the USL, including presenting my research plan during biweekly Lab Meetings, provided constructive feedback and exposed me to diverse ongoing projects. This collaborative atmosphere sparked new ideas and refined my research approach.
Professional network expansion: The fellowship facilitated connections with local experts and stakeholders, broadening my professional network in the field of urban environmental management.
Interdisciplinary exposure: Engaging with various USL projects expanded my understanding of urban systems, potentially opening avenues for future research collaborations.

The USL experience not only advanced my current research but also served as a wellspring of inspiration for my future work. I reflect on this period with gratitude, recognizing its pivotal role in shaping both my project and my development as a researcher in urban environmental studies.

Future Research Directions

The next phase of this doctoral case study involves a comprehensive analysis of the data collected during the three-month fieldwork period. This analysis will focus on three key objectives: (1) identifying and analyzing trade-offs and dilemmas in the Tibbetts Brook daylighting project, (2) examining how these trade-offs manifest in the decision-making process, and (3) assessing the environmental justice implications of these trade-offs and decisions. By scrutinizing the contextual factors specific to Tibbetts Brook, this case study aims to provide empirical evidence that will deepen our understanding of trade-offs and dilemmas inherent in large-scale urban NbS initiatives.

Following the completion of this case study, I intend to extend my research to another urban river daylighting or restoration project in its post-implementation phase. This comparative approach will further expand the conceptualization of urban NbS trade-offs and their justice implications, potentially revealing patterns or disparities across different urban contexts.

Unearthing Justice: Analyzing Trade-Offs in Daylighting the Bronx’s Tibbetts Brook Urban Waterway

FEATURE

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Case Study: Tibbetts Brook Daylighting; Restoring Urban Waterways in The Bronx