Turning Limits into Resilient Landscape Systems
Fangyi Lu
RES
Houston, TX
Dustin, Learned, PE
Civil Creek Services
Houston, TX
Urban landscapes are shaped by constraints such as flooding, erosion, infrastructure, utilities, limited space, maintenance capacity, funding cycles, ecological disturbance, and changing community needs. This presentation explores how these constraints can become opportunities for resilient, adaptive, and meaningful design.
Through selected case projects, the presentation examines how flood infrastructure, drainage corridors, degraded waterways, detention basins, and public open spaces can be transformed into multifunctional landscape systems. These projects show how baseline conditions, natural processes, and long-term timelines can guide design strategies that support flood resilience, ecological restoration, public access, and civic value.
The presentation introduces a framework of Constraint → Cycle → Strategy → Opportunity, emphasizing that resilient landscapes are not fixed objects, but living systems shaped by water, ecology, maintenance, public use, and time
About Fangyi Lu
Fangyi Lu is a Project Manager with RES and a landscape and urban designer with more than 14 years of experience in resilient public space design, urban waterways, flood resilience, and landscape planning. Her work focuses on the relationship between water, ecology, infrastructure, and community life.
Prior to joining RES, she led and contributed to projects across the United States, Mexico, and China, including waterfront master plans, urban parks, bayou corridor planning, and resilient open-space systems. She also served on the Executive Committee of the Greens Bayou Corridor Coalition, where she advocated for equitable flood mitigation, trail development, community park access, and watershed-based planning.
She is passionate about creating urban and natural systems that work with water rather than against it, supporting resilient communities and healthy ecosystems.
About Dustin, Learned, PE
Dustin Learned is a Civil Engineer in Houston, TX. He has over 20 years of civil engineering experience in commercial and municipal development, stormwater management, erosion and sediment control, BMP designs and roadway design. He is a highly motivated, self-directed team player who nurtures effective business relationships.
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