*3.2.5. Visual quality*

decrease of impervious pavement and increase of green areas, including where employ LID

Under the impact of climate change, the heat island effect becomes one of the influential issues in urban environments. The increasing portions of buildings, infrastructures, impervious land covers, and decreasing green areas put the urban environments for human living under a huge

To minimize the heat island effect in the urban environment of Grand Rapids, the intent is to balance the ratio of the shaded portion of the site with the amount directly exposed to the sun. The design focuses on increasing green areas that do not only reduce runoff, but also promote the urban environment adapting to climate change resilience. The expanding green areas and a long skywalk, which connects the incomplete urban fabric in Grand Rapids, provide shadow to decreasing temperature on ground; thus, these contribute to reducing the urban heat island

Trees are important in the urban environment and vital to climate change resilience. Urban forests generate environmental, health, and social benefits. The shaded surface can be cooler (25–45°F) than the peak temperatures of the unshaded surfaces [19]. Trees combined with LID controls can reduce stormwater infrastructure costs and improve the quality of runoff entering natural waterways, improve the walkability of the communities, and provide habitat for biodiversity. Tree canopy can mitigate the increasing extreme hot weather that causes the degradation of air quality, which triggers the exacerbation of chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes [17]. The leaves absorb carbon and dust from the air and generate

Field Sparrow (*Sciurus niger* L. 1758) inhabits old fields with scattered woody vegetation and forages perches, such as shrubs. Seeds and vegetative materials account for their diets: 80–90% of fall or winter diets and 45–49% of spring or summer diets. Breeding habitats are a mixture of shrubs and herbaceous plants with a few large trees. They usually require trees with a maximum diameter at breast height (dbh) of 2.5 cm (1 in.) and height range of 2–8 m (6.6–26.2 ft) for nesting and small stems with diameter stem density ranging from 350 to 700 stems/ha

Fox squirrel (*Spizella pusilla* (Wilson) 1810) inhabits open forest setting and would be better interspersed with understory vegetation and agricultural lands, so does its breeding habitats. Their living options are leaf nests and tree cavities. They require 2–121.4 ha (5–300 acres) farm

Habitat suitability index (HSI) model assumes that reproductive habitat needs are met and uses the reproductive habitat that needs to determine the overall habitat quality. Each cover type within the site can provide the habitats of field sparrow and fox squirrel, and nearby

shrub, grassland, or wooded areas may add to the habitat suitability [20, 21, 22].

controls can promote climate change resilience for a site.

effect and saving energy costs for cooling [17, 18].

*3.2.4. Habitat suitability—field sparrow and fox squirrel*

(142–283 stems/acre) [20, 21].

woodlots [20, 22].

crisis.

70 Sustainable Urbanization

oxygen.

Visual quality evaluation has made great advancements in the last 50 years. Burley and Yli‐ maz recently reviewed the state-of-the-art published results explaining 98.5% of the varia‐ tion [23]. An early formative equation developed in 1997 by this group was employed in this study [23]. Scores in the 100s indicate environments with extremely poor visual quality and often industrial sites. Scores in the 70s and 80s are typical of many urban environments, while scores in the 50s and 60s are environments containing abundant vegetation such as parks, agricultural land, forests, and well-vegetated suburban areas. Low scores around 30 have the best visual quality, containing views of mountains, abundant flowers, and wildlife.

### *3.2.6. Soil productivity*

Predicting soil productivity has been studied extensively and predicted by Burley for areas in North America, with the most recent equation published concerning reconstructing soils for Chippewa, Wisconsin [24]. The team followed the methods described by Chang et al., for Houghton County, Michigan to develop an equation that could be used to computer soil productivity in the general region [16]. The crops and wood plants studied to produce the equation include oats (*Avena sativa* L.), potato (*Solanum tuberosum* L.), corn (*Zea mays* subsp. *mays* L.), strawberries (*Fragaria* x *ananssa* Duchesne), alfalfa (*Medicago sativa* L.), brome grass (*Bromus* sp. Scop.)/alfalfa (*Medicago sativa* L.), pasture, sugar maple (*Acer saccharum* Marshall), red maple (*Acer rubrum* L.), bigtooth aspen (*Populus grandidentata* Michaux), red pine (*Pinus resinoa* (Sol ex Aiton), jack pine (*Pinus banksiana* Lamb.), and black spruce (*Picea mariana* (Mill.) Britton, Sterns, & Poggenburg). In past studies, 10 main effect variables, squared terms, and first-order interaction terms are examined. In this study, an 11th variable, high water table was also included as a variable and electrical conductivity which does not change across the soils was dropped as a potential regressor.

Based upon the design, the study team calculated the metrics for the following items: soil infiltration, days per year with runoff, number of trees average water use/gallon/year, green space (acres), impervious surface (acres), green roof (acres), phosphorus removal, field sparrow habitat suitability index, fox squirrel habitat suitability index, average visual quality score, and average soil productivity.
