Site engineering

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Site Engineering for

LANDSCAPE

ARCHITECTS

WORKBOOK

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SECOND EDITION

Jake Woland

Site Engineering for

LANDSCAPE

ARCHITECTS

WORKBOOK

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

To Accompany Site Engineering for

Landscape Architects, Sixth Edition

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Cover Illustration: Courtesy of Jake Woland

Cover Design: David Riedy

This book is printed on acid-free paper. ∞

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

978-1-118-09085-5

Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

Introduction vii

QUESTIONS

Chapter 1 Site Engineering IS Design 3

Chapter 2 Grading Constraints 7

Chapter 3 Contours and Form 11

Chapter 4 Interpolation and Slope 17

Chapter 5 Grading of Simple Design

Elements 21

Chapter 6 Grading Process 27

Chapter 7 Soils in Construction 39

Chapter 8 Earthwork 45

Chapter 9 Storm Water Management 49

Chapter 10 Storm Water Management

System Components 51

Chapter 11 Soil Erosion and Sediment

Control 55

Chapter 12 Determining Rates and

Volumes of Storm Runoff :

Th e Rational and Modifi ed

Rational Methods 57

Chapter 13 Natural Resources

Conservation Service

Methods of Estimating

Runoff  Rates, Volumes, and

Required Detention Storage 63

Chapter 14 Designing and Sizing Storm

Water Management Systems 65

Chapter 15 Site Layout and

Dimensioning 69

Chapter 16 Horizontal Road Alignment 73

Chapter 17 Vertical Road Alignment 77

ANSWERS

Chapter 2 Grading Constraints 83

Chapter 3 Contours and Form 85

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Chapter 4 Interpolation and Slope 87

Chapter 5 Grading of Simple Design

Elements 93

Chapter 6 Grading Process 99

Chapter 7 Soils in Construction 109

Chapter 8 Earthwork 113

Chapter 9 Storm Water Management 119

Chapter 10 Storm Water

Management System

Components 121

Chapter 11 Soil Erosion and Sediment

Control 123

Chapter 12 Determining Rates and

Volumes of Storm Runoff :

Th e Rational and Modifi ed

Rational Methods 125

Chapter 13 Natural Resources

Conservation Service Methods 

of Estimating Runoff  Rates,

Volumes, and Required

Detention Storage 131

Chapter 14 Designing and Sizing Storm

Water Management Systems 133

Chapter 15 Site Layout and

Dimensioning 137

Chapter 16 Horizontal Road Alignment 141

Chapter 17 Vertical Road Alignment 147

vi | contents

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This workbook has been introduced to comple￾ment the 6th edition of Site Engineering for

Landscape Architects. It has been designed as a

study tool to reinforce concepts from the textbook.

The questions presented in the workbook can be

used in the classroom, as well as by individuals as

a self-study tool, with the ultimate goal of helping

prepare individuals for taking the LARE or other

licensing exams.

The workbook is organized with a chapter of

questions and a separate chapter of answers that

correspond to the respective chapter in the text￾book. As necessary, tables and graphics from the

textbook required to solve questions posed in

the  workbook have been reprinted in the appro￾priate chapters. The questions in each chapter are

generally of four types:

1. Observations

2. Short-answer questions

3. Long-answer questions

4. Graphic questions

In some chapters, all four types of questions

may be presented, whereas in others, only one or

two types may be presented. This depends on the

material being covered. A detailed explanation of

the different types of questions follows.

OBSERVATIONS

Landscape architecture is a profession that

requires lifelong learning. The observation ques￾tions in the workbook are meant to call your atten￾tion to elements of designing with landforms that

pose particular challenges that you will encounter

throughout your career. These observations will

serve as a baseline of inspiration for dealing with

the different types of design problems you will face

in the coming years. It is recommended that you

keep a journal that traces these observations with

both narrative and images. Develop this documen￾tation in whatever form you are comfortable with.

Photo documentation of these observations

is critical in order to have the information avail￾able as you progress in your career. It is highly

recommended that you spend time not only pho￾tographing your observations but also geolocating

them along with the pertinent narrative informa￾tion using software such as Google EarthTM for

later use. A Facebook page (www.facebook.com/

SiteEngineeringForLandscapeArchitects) has been

created to provide a consolidated location for stu￾dents to upload geolocated photos with a brief

description in the different categories of observa￾tion provided throughout the workbook. The author

Introduction

vii

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will curate these images into a growing compen￾dium of examples of excellence in site engineer￾ing. Your participation is encouraged to make this

a robust resource. Students submitting excellent

photographs may be solicited for inclusion of the

photographs in future versions of the textbook.

Answers for observation questions are not pro￾vided in the Answers section of the workbook.

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS

The short-answer questions may take several forms.

Fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice, and mathemati￾cal word questions will be combined throughout,

depending on the material being emphasized.

These questions are meant to reinforce the mate￾rial presented in each chapter and offer a way to

quickly study the basic information in the chapter.

LONG-ANSWER QUESTIONS

The long-answer questions are used to focus atten￾tion on multifaceted concepts and more complex

issues of design. They require a more in-depth

understanding of the basic information in the

chapter.

GRAPHIC QUESTIONS

The graphic questions offer opportunities to

apply the knowledge gained from the chapter.

They are designed to increase in complexity

within each chapter. In most cases, the answers

presented in the Answers section of the work￾book are but one of various possible solutions to

each question.

In summary, the workbook is designed to help

beginning designers build confi dence in using the

concepts of site engineering while also allowing

practitioners to sharpen their skills in preparation

for the licensing exam. It will also help broaden

the understanding of the material through observa￾tion and application of knowledge, which are both

critical to successfully applying these skills to real

projects.

viii | introduction

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QUESTIONS

1

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CHAPTER 1

Questions

1.1

Explore as many of the following types of land￾scapes as possible, both early in your study of this

material and after you have developed a greater

understanding of the material. As you experi￾ence these places, think about how the use of

landform in the design affects your experience.

Does it provide a sequence of experience? Does

it evoke a certain feeling or emotion? How does

the landform interact with plantings and other

designed elements to create the overall composi￾tion? Are there things about the landform that

you would change to improve your experience of

the place?

Take photographs of the places you explore

and upload the photos to the Site Engineering for

Landscape Architects Facebook page (https://www

.facebook.com/SiteEngineeringForLandscape

Architects). Please provide geolocation information

and a brief description of your observation with

any uploaded photos.

Types of places to explore:

• Residences of different types and scales

• State and national parks

• University or college campuses

• Corporate campuses

• Athletic fi elds

• Civic spaces/places — city hall, post offi ce,

library, courthouse

• Places of worship

1.2

Search your local area and identify roads of the fol￾lowing types that you will revisit throughout your

study of site engineering. As you take the time to

explore and identify these roads, observe how the

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road and its adjacent conditions interact. Can you

tell whether the road has been fi t into the land￾scape, leaving its surroundings largely intact, or

whether the landscape has been altered to accom￾modate the road and adjacent development?

Take photographs of the streets, roads, and high￾ways and upload the photos to the Site Engineering

for Landscape Architects Facebook page.

Road types to assess:

• Residential street in a new development.

• Residential street in an older part of town.

• A stretch of highway with a diversity of different

landscapes adjacent to it. This could include

urban, suburban, and rural residential devel￾opment; farmland; and industrial and natural

landscapes.

• A winding rural road.

• A road in a local, state, or national park.

1.3

Find a construction site near where you live that

will be relatively easy to visit and observe over time.

(Obtain offi cial permission as necessary to enter

each location for observation.) You will be visiting

this site as you learn more about the various top￾ics involved with site engineering. The more com￾plex the construction, the better example it will be

to use in this series of observations. To show the

progress of the construction, take photographs of

the site at least weekly.

Take photographs of the construction site

and upload the photos to the Site Engineering for

Landscape Architects Facebook page.

1.4

Find a local habitat restoration to visit. (Obtain

offi cial permission as necessary to enter each

location for observation.) Research in advance a

description of the landscape development of the

restoration. What role did landform play in restor￾ing this habitat? As you visit the site, can you tell

that there has been construction on the site? Does

the restoration have a clear boundary, or does the

site blend well with the surrounding landscape?

Take photographs of the habitat restoration

and upload the photos to the Site Engineering for

Landscape Architects Facebook page.

1.5

Sketch, photograph, or create a collage of one of

your favorite places, designed or not. To accom￾pany your imagery, write a narrative of the place

that answers the following questions:

• How is the character of this place affected by

the landforms of which it is composed?

• How do the landforms interact with the plant

life to create the place?

• How would you change the landform to

improve this place?

• If it is a designed landscape, to what type of

character described in the textbook does it

most closely correspond?

• Do the different spatial considerations men￾tioned in the reading play a part in your experi￾ence of the place?

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• Are there particular environmental functions

that appear to be a part of the composition of

the place?

1.6

Model in the medium with which you are most

comfortable (either digital or physical) a landform

or series of landforms that you feel conveys one or

more of the emotions below. If you are creating a

physical model, make it at least 12" 3 12" in size.

Take photographs of screen shots of your

model and upload them to the Site Engineering

for Landscape Architects Facebook page.

• anger

• joy

• sadness

• excitement

• surprise

• fear

• hope

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