Urban Soils and Vacant Land as a Stormwater Resource

摘要

The reduction of the volume of stormwater from storm events is paramount in the mitigation of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) required Waste Load Allocations as assigned to the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) program mandated in American cities. A recent investigation conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development (EPA-ORD), in the urban core communities of Cincinnati and Cleveland, examined the taxonomy and hydrology of urban soils to better understand the distribution of stormwater storage and infiltration capacity across previously unmapped areas. Urban soil mapping historically has not provided the information necessary to implement even the smallest scale stormwater control measures (SCMs). SCM This venture opportunistically sampled vacant lots to perform soil taxonomy on unmapped soils and document the capacity of urban soil to retain the infiltration and absorption characteristics of the parent material. The use of vacant lands for Green Infrastructure and stormwater volume mitigation can simultaneously address reduction in CSO frequency and volume, NPDES Total Maximum Daily Load (WLA-Waste Load Allocations) and social justice issues in struggling post-industrial urban communities.