Accessibility Statement Skip Navigation
  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing
  • Login
  • GDPR
  • Create a Free Account
Return to PRWeb homepage
  • News
  • Resources
  • Contact
When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type.

Searching for your content...

No results found. Please change your search terms and try again.
  • News in Focus
      • Browse News Releases

      • All News Releases
      • Multimedia Gallery

      • All Multimedia
      • All Photos
      • All Videos
  • Business & Money
      • Auto & Transportation

      • Aerospace, Defense
      • Air Freight
      • Airlines & Aviation
      • Automotive
      • Maritime & Shipbuilding
      • Railroads and Intermodal Transportation
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Transportation, Trucking & Railroad
      • Travel
      • Trucking and Road Transportation
      • View All Auto & Transportation

      • Business Technology

      • Blockchain
      • Broadcast Tech
      • Computer & Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Components
      • Electronic Design Automation
      • Financial Technology
      • High Tech Security
      • Internet Technology
      • Nanotechnology
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Semiconductors
      • View All Business Technology

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Financial Services & Investing

      • Accounting News & Issues
      • Acquisitions, Mergers and Takeovers
      • Banking & Financial Services
      • Bankruptcy
      • Bond & Stock Ratings
      • Conference Call Announcements
      • Contracts
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Dividends
      • Earnings
      • Earnings Forecasts & Projections
      • Financing Agreements
      • Insurance
      • Investments Opinions
      • Joint Ventures
      • Mutual Funds
      • Private Placement
      • Real Estate
      • Restructuring & Recapitalization
      • Sales Reports
      • Shareholder Activism
      • Shareholder Meetings
      • Stock Offering
      • Stock Split
      • Venture Capital
      • View All Financial Services & Investing

      • General Business

      • Awards
      • Commercial Real Estate
      • Corporate Expansion
      • Earnings
      • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
      • Human Resource & Workforce Management
      • Licensing
      • New Products & Services
      • Obituaries
      • Outsourcing Businesses
      • Overseas Real Estate (non-US)
      • Personnel Announcements
      • Real Estate Transactions
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Small Business Services
      • Socially Responsible Investing
      • Surveys, Polls and Research
      • Trade Show News
      • View All General Business

  • Science & Tech
      • Consumer Technology

      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Blockchain
      • Cloud Computing/Internet of Things
      • Computer Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Consumer Electronics
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Gaming
      • Financial Technology
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Multimedia & Internet
      • Peripherals
      • Social Media
      • STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Consumer Technology

      • Energy & Natural Resources

      • Alternative Energies
      • Chemical
      • Electrical Utilities
      • Gas
      • General Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil & Energy
      • Oil and Gas Discoveries
      • Utilities
      • Water Utilities
      • View All Energy & Natural Resources

      • Environ­ment

      • Conservation & Recycling
      • Environmental Issues
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Products & Services
      • Green Technology
      • Natural Disasters
      • View All Environ­ment

      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Agriculture
      • Chemical
      • Construction & Building
      • General Manufacturing
      • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning)
      • Machinery
      • Machine Tools, Metalworking and Metallurgy
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Paper, Forest Products & Containers
      • Precious Metals
      • Textiles
      • Tobacco
      • View All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Telecomm­unications

      • Carriers and Services
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Telecommunications Equipment
      • Telecommunications Industry
      • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Telecomm­unications

  • Lifestyle & Health
      • Consumer Products & Retail

      • Animals & Pets
      • Beers, Wines and Spirits
      • Beverages
      • Bridal Services
      • Cannabis
      • Cosmetics and Personal Care
      • Fashion
      • Food & Beverages
      • Furniture and Furnishings
      • Home Improvement
      • Household, Consumer & Cosmetics
      • Household Products
      • Jewelry
      • Non-Alcoholic Beverages
      • Office Products
      • Organic Food
      • Product Recalls
      • Restaurants
      • Retail
      • Supermarkets
      • Toys
      • View All Consumer Products & Retail

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film and Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Health

      • Biometrics
      • Biotechnology
      • Clinical Trials & Medical Discoveries
      • Dentistry
      • FDA Approval
      • Fitness/Wellness
      • Health Care & Hospitals
      • Health Insurance
      • Infection Control
      • International Medical Approval
      • Medical Equipment
      • Medical Pharmaceuticals
      • Mental Health
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Supplementary Medicine
      • View All Health

      • Sports

      • General Sports
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Sporting Events
      • Sports Equipment & Accessories
      • View All Sports

      • Travel

      • Amusement Parks and Tourist Attractions
      • Gambling & Casinos
      • Hotels and Resorts
      • Leisure & Tourism
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Passenger Aviation
      • Travel Industry
      • View All Travel

  • Policy & Public Interest
      • Policy & Public Interest

      • Advocacy Group Opinion
      • Animal Welfare
      • Congressional & Presidential Campaigns
      • Corporate Social Responsibility
      • Domestic Policy
      • Economic News, Trends, Analysis
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • European Government
      • FDA Approval
      • Federal and State Legislation
      • Federal Executive Branch & Agency
      • Foreign Policy & International Affairs
      • Homeland Security
      • Labor & Union
      • Legal Issues
      • Natural Disasters
      • Not For Profit
      • Patent Law
      • Public Safety
      • Trade Policy
      • U.S. State Policy
      • View All Policy & Public Interest

  • People & Culture
      • People & Culture

      • Aboriginal, First Nations & Native American
      • African American
      • Asian American
      • Children
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Hispanic
      • Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual
      • Men's Interest
      • People with Disabilities
      • Religion
      • Senior Citizens
      • Veterans
      • Women
      • View All People & Culture

  • Hamburger menu
  • Cision PRWeb provides efficient communication tools to continuously engage with target audiences across multiple online channels
  • Create a Free Account
    • ALL CONTACT INFO
    • Contact Us


      11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday

  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • News in Focus
    • Browse All News
    • Multimedia Gallery
  • Business & Money
    • Auto & Transportation
    • Business Technology
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Financial Services & Investing
    • General Business
  • Science & Tech
    • Consumer Technology
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Environ­ment
    • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
    • Telecomm­unications
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Consumer Products & Retail
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Policy & Public Interest
  • People & Culture
    • People & Culture
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR
  • Send a Release
  • Sign up
  • Log in
  • Resources
  • RSS
  • GDPR

UMD Study Shows that Even Small Patches of Urban Forest in Baltimore Infiltrate Stormwater Comparably to Green Infrastructure Features Like Rain Gardens
  • USA - English


News provided by

University Of Maryland

Nov 25, 2019, 13:00 ET

Share this article

Share toX

Share this article

Share toX

Baltimore, Maryland trees
Baltimore, Maryland trees

“There is always that tension when new development happens between leveling everything and going back to add in rain gardens and green infrastructure versus leaving what’s there and building around it. These results speak to the ability of these spaces, small and large, to act like a rain garden."

Post this

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (PRWEB) November 25, 2019 -- Researchers at the University of Maryland released a collaborative study that sheds new light on the added value of even small patches of urban forest for managing and infiltrating stormwater. Published in the Journal of Environmental Management, researchers assessed patches of urban forest in Baltimore, Maryland, and found that regardless of the size of the patch, these areas can infiltrate stormwater at similar rates as green infrastructure features like rain gardens, playing a significant role in curbing pollution, runoff, and nutrient damage to the surrounding waterways feeding into the Chesapeake Bay. Since smaller patches of urban forest aren’t often a major focus from a conservation perspective, these findings suggest that conserving these unmanaged green spaces could be more valuable than originally thought.

“There is a perception that urban soils are very heavily degraded and not as useful for some of these environmental purposes, but we found that 60 to 70% of the rainfall could actually be infiltrated on site by these spaces,” says Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman, assistant professor in Environmental Science & Technology. “And that was a major question mark for us - are these spaces that haven’t been planned and built like a rain garden doing similar things to a rain garden, and if so, what are they actually doing?”

In collaboration with Baltimore Green Space, the U.S. Forest Service, and the geography department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Pavao-Zuckerman and his graduate student set out to assess how well patches of urban forest, which are often neglected and thought to have little value as stormwater management features, can actually infiltrate stormwater.

“It really was the partnerships that gave us the opportunity to do this. We started working with UMBC and the Forest Service who had been working with Baltimore Green Space as a community partner to characterize spaces with respect to stewardship activities in the area. We were all trying to find new ways of thinking about forest in cities - what they are, how they are classified, whether there are limits with what would be, is, and could be conserved, and how is the city thinking about protection.”

These partners provided background information to Pavao-Zuckerman about the makeup and characteristics of these urban forest spaces so that they could start assessing their functionality, starting with hydrology and soil infiltration measures to see how they behave as stormwater management systems. In addition to infiltration, researchers assessed how smaller patches of forest may differ from larger patches.

“When people talk about urban forest in the U.S., they aren’t just talking about large clusters of trees,” explains Pavao-Zuckerman. “Many would even consider a single street tree as part of an urban forest system. In our study, we focused on small patches compared to larger patches that would be more typically considered to be forests. Small patches are usually more disconnected from everything else, like strips that are left behind as the geometry of development occurs.”

Findings show that small patches infiltrate at similar rates to large patches of urban forest. “From a conservation perspective, the smaller patches aren’t always looked to as valuable, but these findings suggest that they are,” says Pavao-Zuckerman.

He adds, “There is always that tension when new development happens between leveling everything and going back to add in rain gardens and green infrastructure versus leaving what’s there and building around it. These results speak to the ability of these spaces, small and large, to act like a rain garden. From an urban planning perspective, it costs more money to put something in then to leave something behind.”

Pavao-Zuckerman hopes to focus future work on modeling stormwater flow patterns and runoff to see the type of impact urban forest systems like the one in Baltimore are having on bodies of water like the Chesapeake Bay.

“We want to be thinking about green infrastructure not just as a basin or a rain garden or a patch of trees, but as an actual network of infrastructure - how things connect in with the rest of that system is really important. We haven’t looked at the runoff pattern yet, but that would be valuable to see to understand how flow happens.”

This paper, entitled “The capacity of urban forest patches to infiltrate stormwater is influenced by soil physical properties and soil moisture,” is published in the Journal of Environmental Management. This work is supported by Chesapeake Bay Trust, the U.S. Forest Service, and the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources’ Hatch Program through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture.

Samantha Watters, University Of Maryland, +1 (301) 405-2434, [email protected]

Modal title

Contact PRWeb

  • 11AM ET Sunday – 8PM ET Friday
  • Contact Us

About PRWeb

  • About PRWeb
  • Partners
  • Partnership Programs
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Resources

Why PRWeb

  • Why PRWeb
  • How It Works
  • Who Uses It
  • Pricing

Accounts

  • Create a Free Account
  • Log in
  • Contact Us

Do not sell or share my personal information:

  • Submit via [email protected] 
  • Call Privacy toll-free: 877-297-8921

Contact Cision

Products

About

My Services
  • All News Releases
  • Online Member Center
  • ProfNet
Cision Distribution Helpline
888-776-0942
  • Legal
  • Site Map
  • RSS
  • Cookie Settings
Copyright © 2025 Cision US Inc.