ABSTRACT
This chapter examines four types of corridors: railways, utilities, alleys, and waterways. Corridors can provide much-needed relief from dense urban areas that lack parks and open space and can rejuvenate decrepit neighborhoods by reconnecting social and cultural elements. Greenways can vary in nomenclature and function and include biological/ecological corridors, greenbelts, conservation corridors, vegetative/riparian buffers, and linear parks. Similar to rail corridors, utility corridors represent another circumscribed lineage of space that can double as greenspace for wildlife or even pedestrians but are often unusable, hazardous, and aesthetically unappealing. Overhead utilities can be co-located with wind turbines, railways, and pedestrian paths to foster multi-use corridors. In addition to irresponsible land development and urbanization, other human impacts from agriculture, livestock grazing, forestry, and flood control have severely degraded riparian corridors. Runoff from rooftops that would otherwise hit the street surface and carry pollutants and sediment into waterways can be absorbed and filtered in an alleyway.
