Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Yang Wang, Hao Yin, Zhiruo Liu, Xinyu Wang
Summary: Even though vacant urban lands (VUL) can have a positive impact on stormwater management, there is limited literature on how VUL can utilize stormwater control measures (SCMs) to improve urban water quality. This project aims to provide information on remediating vacant lands using pollutant removal techniques. The study shows that previously developed/used land is often contaminated, and SCMs are effective in reducing nonpoint source pollution. Among the removal techniques, bioretention systems are effective for heavy metals and phosphorus, while wet ponds are highly effective for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. However, there is little information on SCMs' removal of perfluoroalkyl acid (PFAA) pollutants.
Article
Environmental Studies
Young-Jae Kim, Ryun Jung Lee, Taehwa Lee, Yongchul Shin
Summary: This study investigated the relationship between land cover, natural environment, and urban vacancies in Austin, Texas. The results suggest that green infrastructure interacts differently with residential and business vacancies. Low-income communities lack green infrastructure compared with the rest of the city and are exposed to more urban vacancies in their neighborhoods.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Thamali Perera, James McGree, Prasanna Egodawatta, K. B. S. N. Jinadasa, Ashantha Goonetilleke
Summary: Stormwater runoff pollution is a key environmental issue in urban areas, and accurate estimation of pollutant discharge is crucial for water quality management. Traditional deterministic approaches have limitations in addressing variability in stormwater quality, while Bayesian modeling is effective for handling complex models.
Article
Plant Sciences
Lauren E. O'Brien, Rachael E. Urbanek, James D. Gregory
Summary: The recent sprawl of urbanization in the Eastern U.S. has made landscapes vulnerable to degradation. Urban forests have been presented as a method to ameliorate human and environmental health in metropolitan environments. This study highlights the ecological functions and human benefits of urban forests and emphasizes the importance of incorporating trees into city design for mitigating environmental impacts.
URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Uthpala Pinto, Shivanesh Rao, Daniel Phillip Svozil, Aaron Wright, Ashantha Goonetilleke
Summary: A holistic understanding of stormwater quality and quantity in catchment land use is crucial for effective stormwater management. This study investigated the quality and quantity of stormwater from different land use types, highlighting the complex nature of stormwater quality influenced by catchment and rainfall characteristics. The results showed varying patterns of physicochemical and hydrological variables across different land use types and flow conditions.
Article
Environmental Sciences
William R. Selbig, Steven P. Loheide, William Shuster, Bryant C. Scharenbroch, Robert C. Coville, James Kruegler, William Avery, Ralph Haefner, David Nowak
Summary: This study using an experimental design found that street trees have an impact on managing urban stormwater runoff, with tree removal leading to an increase in surface runoff volume. However, tree removal did not significantly affect peak discharge. Based on the research, the runoff volume reduction benefit was estimated at 6376 liters per tree.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Carolyn B. Voter, Steven P. Loheide
Summary: Understanding how climate factors affect the effectiveness of low impact development (LID) practices is crucial for stormwater management. The study found that the effects of LID practices on long-term surface runoff, deep drainage, and evapotranspiration are controlled by the balance and timing of water and energy availability, as well as precipitation intermittency. This offers a new approach for predicting LID performance across different climates and evaluating strategies under current and future climate conditions.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Studies
Long Zhou, Guoqiang Shen, Chaosu Li, Tian Chen, Sihong Li, Robert Brown
Summary: This study establishes robust regression relations between existing urban land uses and stormwater yield/quality at the land parcel level using environmental models and high-resolution spatial data, with the City of Corvallis in the U.S. as a case study. It provides a novel approach for local jurisdictions and private property owners to evaluate the impacts of urban development plans on the environment.
Article
Engineering, Civil
Kun Zhang, Anthony J. Parolari
Summary: The study investigates the subsurface fate of stormwater infiltration enhanced by green infrastructure (GI) and its impact on the overall water balance. A physically based hydrologic model is developed and applied to a sewershed near Milwaukee, WI, to quantify the partitioning of infiltrated stormwater. The findings show that GI implementation can reduce surface runoff and peak flow in urban sewer systems, but its impact on rainfall-derived inflow and infiltration (RDII) is relatively small.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Shaojuan Xu, Manfred Ehlers
Summary: With the increasing attention on urban vacant land, this study focuses on defining a typology for automatic site detection. By using a rule-based data fusion method, the study successfully identified vacant sites in 63 urban and rural districts in Germany, utilizing open-source spatial data and free software for data processing.
COMPUTERS ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN SYSTEMS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Deborah R. Hilbert, Andrew K. Koeser, Lara A. Roman, Michael G. Andreu, Gail Hansen, Mack Thetford, Robert J. Northrop
Summary: Urban forests play a critical role in providing environmental benefits, but the challenge of low species diversity in urban forest management remains. This study in central Florida tested underutilized native tree species and found that Ulmus alata and Viburnum obovatum showed the greatest potential in urban settings. The project also showed that co-production of knowledge involving local municipalities, practitioners, and researchers is an effective strategy for selecting and testing underutilized tree species.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Rui Zhu, Galen Newman, Dongying Li, Yang Song, Lei Zou
Summary: Vacant urban land has a significant impact on human health, with different city characteristics leading to varying risks of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In shrinking cities, vacant lands are often detrimental to public health, while in growing cities, they can function as green spaces and mitigate NCDs.
URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING
(2023)
Article
Environmental Studies
Wei Zhang, Yuqing Li, Caigui Zheng
Summary: Solving the land vacancy problem and promoting urban transformation is a crucial challenge in China's new urbanization construction, especially with rapid urban expansion and localized shrinkage. Using GIS spatial analysis and multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model, this study explores the spatial distribution rules and driving mechanisms of urban vacant land (UVL) in Chengdu, China. The results show that Chengdu has 3859 UVLs, accounting for 16.19% of the total construction land. These UVLs exhibit typological differentiation, circular structure, and spatial agglomeration. The driving mechanisms for shrinking and expanding vacant lots differ, and the impact intensity of driving factors has significant spatial non-stationarity characteristics.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Mohammadsoroush Tafazzoli
Summary: Urbanization alters cities' natural hydrology and leads to changes in precipitation properties. Runoffs from cities' built environment create environmental challenges, which can be mitigated by green roofs. However, the utilization of green roofs has been limited due to a lack of research guidelines. This review paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the application of green roofs for runoff control and highlights existing research gaps.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Haibin Yan, Arlette Fernandez, David Z. Zhu, Wenming Zhang, Mark R. Loewen, Bert van Duin, Lei Chen, Khizar Mahmood, Stacey Zhao, Haifeng Jia
Summary: This study introduced a new land-cover based (LCB) model in urban stormwater modeling, demonstrating that the consideration of land cover can significantly improve model accuracy, particularly in hydrological simulation. The LCB model outperformed the traditional watershed delineation tool (WDT) model in hydrological simulation, while showing comparable performances in simulation of total suspended solids (TSS), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) loading.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2022)