UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    The stormwater retention benefits of urban trees and forests
    (2018) Phillips, Tuana Hilst; Pavao-Zuckerman, Mitchell; Environmental Science and Technology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The use of urban tree canopies as strategies to mitigate stormwater runoff is limited in part by a lack of empirically observed data. This thesis quantifies soil infiltration capacity in 21 forest patches in Baltimore, Maryland, and reports results from a meta-analysis on urban tree transpiration. Results show that the degree to which soil infiltration and tree transpiration functions reduce stormwater runoff depends on soil physical properties, tree characteristics, and management drivers. Yet, results conservatively estimate that Baltimore forest patch soils are capable of infiltrating ~68% of rainfall. In addition, urban trees transpire ~1.7 mm of water per day in the growing season or ~0.8 mm of water per day on an annual basis, an amount of water that equals approximately 26% of the annual rainfall in the Baltimore region. Thus, urban trees and forests impact urban hydrology and are an important component of stormwater green infrastructure in built environments.
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    Effect of Initial Soil Moisture Conditions on Runoff Transport of Manure-borne Pathogens through Vegetated Filter Strips
    (2006-11-21) Cardoso-Gendreau, Fatima Araujo; Shirmohammadi, Adel; Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Pollution of drinking and recreational water supplies with manure-borne pathogenic bacteria through surface runoff from agricultural lands is a public health threat, particularly, where there is concentrated animal production (e.g., Iowa). This study was conducted to investigate the effect of initial soil moisture conditions on the effectiveness of vegetated filters strips (VFS) to mitigate surface runoff transport of two surrogate pathogenic bacteria, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica enterica Typhimurium, from land-applied swine slurry. A 5% slope lysimeter containing clay loam soil was constructed, partitioned into vegetated and bare plots, and the plots instrumented to collect, measure, and sample runoff at different time intervals and at two distances from the slurry application area during rainfall simulations. Results indicated that the potential of VFS to attenuate runoff transport of pathogens was reduced under increased initial soil moisture conditions, indicating that infiltration is an important factor in the mitigation process.