Landscape Architecture Solutions That Address Inland Flooding

Overview

The American Society of Landscape Architects Fund (The ASLA Fund), a 501(c)(3) organization, has awarded a team at Virginia Tech School of Design — Jenn Engelke, ASLA, PhD, PLA, assistant professor of landscape architecture, and Betsy Painter, graduate student — a $15,000 national competitive research grant to investigate landscape architecture solutions to inland flooding.

The research review will be publicly accessible via the ASLA website in spring 2027. The review will aggregate the most relevant and credible peer-reviewed evidence for landscape architecture and nature-based solutions that:

• Increase the resilience of communities and natural systems to climate impacts
• Improve water quality and management
• Conserve and restore ecosystems and increase biodiversity
• Reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration

Dr. Engelke and Painter will examine research from a range of relevant disciplines, including scientific disciplines, and third-party verified data from projects led by academic and professional practitioners in landscape architecture or that involved significant contributions by them.

The goals of the research review is to:

• Understand and summarize the current state of knowledge.
• Synthesize the research literature and provide  insights, leveraging key data- and science-based evidence.
• Create accessible executive summaries in plain language for policymakers, community advocates, and practicing landscape architects.

The executive summary will minimize the use of technical design, planning, or scientific terms, but when used, should include clear definitions of the terms. It will be written with the goal of increasing awareness of the role of landscape architecture solutions and establish credibility among broad audiences by incorporating examples of planning and design projects, supported by evidence and data from the most reputable sources.

The research review will be used to advance research, advocacy, and communications goals with a range of audiences:

• Federal, state, and local policy-makers and regulators
• Allied professionals (planners, architects, engineers, ecologists)
• Community leaders, advocates, and activists
• Landscape architects
• Academics and scientists in other disciplines, potential research partners
• Potential donors
• Landscape architecture clients
• Landscape architecture students

Learn more

The grant research period will run from April 2026 to February 2027.

Proposals and all deliverables will be reviewed by:

• A four-member panel of peer academics, including representatives from Landscape Journal and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) 
• ASLA National Team
• Academic, student, and practitioner members of the ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee (CBAC) Advocacy Subcommittee