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Infrastructure Upgrades and the Environment

Where Infrastructure Meets Habitat - Impacts and Opportunities

Benjamin Colbert, Heidi M. Hartmann and Jennifer J. Walker

Wednesday, May 22
International Room
8:00 AM

About the Session

This session includes three diverse sessions exploring impacts and benefits of infrastructure improvements in our communities. One presentation will review the current science on the impact of disturbance on terrestrial and aquatic organisms and populations. Energy development with solar farms is providing unique ecosystem opportunities, including pollinator habitat for increased agricultural productivity, increased soil quality and retention, increased carbon sequestration, and hydrologic improvements such as better water quality and reduced runoff. Finally, one presentation will discuss how goals for water resources sustainability as part of a master plan led to water reuse and reclamation improvements at the Los Angeles Zoo.

About the Presenters

smiling man in suit and tie in front of a brick wallBenjamin Colbert

Benjamin Colbert has worked in the environmental field for nearly 10 years. For the first part of his career, he conducted regulatory inspections, investigated oil spills, and assessed impacts of agency actions in New York, Miami and New Orleans while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. For the last two years, Ben has worked on environmental planning and natural resource policy for the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C. Much of Ben's current work focuses assessing the impacts of underwater sound on marine organisms. Ben has a Master of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University and is currently pursuing is doctorate at University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Lab.

woman with medium length hair Heidi Hartmann

Ms. Hartmann has over 25 years of experience in environmental impact assessment, particularly with respect to energy development, land management, and health risk assessment. She is currently the manager of the Land Resources and Energy Policy Program in the Environmental Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Through DOE’s InSPIRE project, she and her team are working to identify and quantify the ecosystem service benefits of establishing native vegetation at solar facilities.

Jennifer Walker

Biography Pending