College of Agriculture & Natural Resources
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1598
The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item REGENERATIVE STORMWATER CONVEYANCE: TECHNIQUES TO WATERSHED STEWARDSHIP & TURNING STORMWATER LIABILITIES INTO AMENITIES(2018) Zerfas, Matthew; Kweon, Byoung-Suk; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance (RSC) is a moderately new best management practice primarily implemented in the mid-Atlantic region. This thesis documents the proposed design of an RSC at Parkdale High School in the Washington D.C. metropolitan region. A degraded channel with incised banks between 9 to 12 feet in height was found on site. This stormwater channel runs for 160 feet and has a contributing catchment of 17.2 acres. The proposed RSC was designed to stabilize the channel banks, and create a stable channel profile. The runoff storage volume was calculated to be 4523.1 ft3 total which would treat a runoff volume of 0.24”. This equates to 32% TN, 37% TP and 40% TSS removal. The design provides a viewing area with a photo point and bank pin that would provide an opportunity for students and teachers to assist in visually documenting sediment deposition and geomorphological changes that may occur.Item MAXIMIZING LANDSCAPE PERFORMANCE AT ADVENTIST HOSPITAL: HEALING THE PEOPLE, HEALING SLIGO CREEK(2016) Sorvalis, George; Ellis, Christopher D; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This paper answers the question of whether a design intervention on Washington Adventist Hospital’s Takoma Park campus can combine stormwater Best Management Practices with outdoor healing spaces, to improve the health of the local creek (Sligo Creek) while creating a restorative environment for the hospital community. To improve the health of Sligo Creek, a campus-wide stormwater analysis was undertaken, in addition to an intervention-site-specific stormwater analysis, and a literature review of stormwater best management practices. To create a restorative environment, a literature review of healing gardens was undertaken, in addition to a campus-wide site analysis, to uncover the most ideally suited site to create a restorative environment.Item Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance: Design Implications of an Urban Case Demonstration in Baltimore, Maryland(2016) Hayes, Kathleen; Chanse, Victoria; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research-design thesis explores the implementation of Regenerative Stormwater Conveyance (RSC) as a retrofit of an existing impervious drainage system in a small catchment in the degraded Jones Falls watershed in Baltimore City. An introduction to RSC is provided, placing its development within a theoretical context of novel ecosystems, biomimicry and Nassauer and Opdam’s (2008) model of landscape innovation. The case site is in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood on City-owned land adjacent to rowhomes, open space and an access point to a popular wooded trail along a local stream. The design proposal employs RSC to retrofit an ill-performing stormwater system, simultaneously providing a range of ecological, social and economic services; water quantity, water quality and economic performance of the proposed RSC are quantified. While the proposed design is site-specific the model is adaptable for retrofitting other small-scale impervious drainage systems, providing a strategic tool in addressing Baltimore City’s stormwater challenges.Item EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOF SUBSTRATE COMPOSITION: EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL PROPERTIES ON MATRIC POTENTIAL, HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY, PLANT GROWTH, AND STORMWATER RETENTION IN THE MID-ATLANTIC.(2014) Griffin, Whitney; Lea-Cox, John D; Cohan, Steven M; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While green roof (GR) systems have gained popularity as storm water management tools, more emphasis has been applied to studying performance aspects, including stormwater retention. Of particular importance is the substrate layer in which the vegetation grows, which contributes the majority of stormwater retention capabilities. This research investigated many aspects of GR substrate performance, including component durability and component effects on hydraulic conductivity, matric potential, and plant growth. Several commercial substrate blends were tested for durability against successive freeze/thaw cycles with before and after-treatment granulometric distribution analyses. All substrate blends showed significant (p<0.05) particle degradation after 30 freeze-thaw cycles, compared to German (FLL) guidelines. The hydraulic conductivity and matric potential of three experimental GR substrates with increasing volumetric proportions (10%, 20%, 40%) of organic matter (OM), were determined using the HYPROP© method, which extends the traditional measurement range for soils. However, the high porosity of GR substrates resulted in tensiometer water column cavitation near -30kPa. Further studies with the same experimental substrates and OM ratios included both growth chamber studies to rigorously quantify the effects on plant growth and evapotranspiration and outdoor platform experiments to determine effects of OM content on stormwater retention. Growth chamber studies with Sedum kamptschaticum showed that increasing substrate OM increased plant root and shoot biomass. Consecutive periods of water stress showed no differences in evapotranspiration between planted substrate OM treatments levels, but greater water loss was noted from the planted treatments compared to unplanted controls (p<0.05). Substrate volumetric water content (VWC) during the stress periods reached 5% VWC for all planted treatments and all dry-down periods, highlighting differences in plant-available water between these and the laboratory results. While outdoor platform studies showed no effects of OM content on stormwater retention, increasing organic content increased plant canopy coverage (p<0.05). It is likely that differences in retention will be more defined over time as the system matures. Stormwater retention data represented the second growing season for the experimental platforms; given the effects of organic matter on plant growth, analysis of three- or even five-year retention will likely better predict the effects of organic matter on stormwater performance.Item COMMUNITY BASED APPROACHES TO STORMWATER DESIGN IN A BALTIMORE NEIGHBORHOOD(2012) Clarkwest, Jennifer Zoe; Chanse, Victoria; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This interdisciplinary research-design thesis explores the role of resident engagement in developing a design criteria for urban stormwater runoff design solutions, urban greening, and activating public spaces in the urbanized McElderry Park neighborhood of Baltimore. Drawing upon stakeholder and resident interviews, community workshops, resident working groups, and site observations and analysis the designer developed design criteria for site interventions as well as neighborhood-wide programming elements. Residents identify jobs, safety and health as primary concerns. Beyond harvesting stormwater, site interventions must provide safety, education, entrepreneurial opportunities, exercise, etc. Building on community input, the design interventions proposed by the designer are site specific, but the intervention types are readily adaptable. The overall design process and programming strategies apply to a variety of urban sites. Given the amount of stormwater managed by the interventions, the potential jobs created by the interventions, and other benefits provided to residents, the model merits field testing at the neighborhood scale.Item Addressing New Stormwater Policies in the Redesign of the National Grove of State Trees at the United States National Arboretum(2012) Kreiseder, Kory Anne; Myers, David N; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The National Grove of State Trees at the United States National Arboretum is in need of redesign to meet ecological and social needs. The Grove serves as a scientific and cultural landscape and can be repurposed to serve the public as an ecological demonstration for contemporary environmental issues. In an intensive effort to clean up the local rivers of the District of Columbia and the Chesapeake Bay, the two agencies of the District Department of the Environment and DC Water have enacted stormwater runoff fees, based on impervious surface fees, on all property owners located in the District of Columbia. The redesign of the Grove is compounded by the Arboretum's need to add more parking to the area where the Grove is currently located. The objective of this thesis is to reimagine the design and interpretation of the Grove as well as address the impervious area charge assessments.Item GREEN AND BLUE SCHOOLS: THE USE OF ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE RAINWATER DESIGN AT GEORGETOWN VISITATION PREPARATORY SCHOOL IN GEORGETOWN, WASHINGTON DC.(2012) Jensen, Allison Palmer; Myers, David N; Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The artful management of stormwater has a capability to create educational arenas by combining environmentally sensitive rainwater design with education. School settings provide great opportunities for integrating on-site stormwater treatment into many aspects of the curriculum from the sciences to the arts. Presently, urban settings have new initiatives for creating green schools, which covers all levels of sustainability for the campus. This research project focuses on the development of stormwater and water-related designs for Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Georgetown, Washington DC. The main research is an assessment of the school's existing stormwater usage and runoff and also evaluating possibilities for new stormwater management techniques to be a supplement to curriculum.