CUERE Seminar Series - Dr. Stuart Schwartz

In both practice and policy, urban hydrologic response is widely viewed and managed as the product of impervious surface runoff, moderated by infiltration services from pervious landuses. Yet the hydrologic legacy of modern mass grading and standard construction practices commonly decouples the form and function of urban pervious landscapes. In the built environment, the inevitable consequence of routine and inadvertent compaction leaves a legacy of disturbed compacted soils that limit vegetation success and amplify urban stormwater runoff by reducing rooting depths, infiltration, and the water holding capacity of disturbed soil profiles. Vegetation success and hydrologic services can be purposefully restored using sustainable grading practices that integrate urban soil husbandry with mass grading and land transformation. We describe evidence of the prevalence of soil compaction in the Baltimore metropolitan area along with field-scale results from compacted urban sites that were renovated with soil decompaction and amendment practices. The hydrologic legacy of disturbed compacted soil profiles presents a significant opportunity to restore urban hydrologic function, and improve hydrologic design, stormwater management, and urban water policy, through the purposeful design of sustainable landscapes.