Research Guides: ENSP 400: Capstone in Environmental Science and Policy: Promoting Ecological Landscapes to Achieve Carbon Reduction Goals

Promoting Ecological Landscapes to Achieve Carbon Reduction Goals

Ecological Landscaping

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the use of sustainable landscapes within the City of Bowie Maryland

Background

As states establish carbon reduction goals local municipalities are charged with developing plans that will contribute to achieving statewide targets. With passage of the 2022 Climate Solutions Now Act, the State of Maryland has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHE) by 60%, from 2006 levels, by 2031, and achieving net-zero emissions by 2045. In 2022, the City of Bowie developed its Climate Action Implementation Plan. The plan has five action areas with one of these being to increase the carbon sequestration capacity of city-maintained lands and open spaces. The City views the conversion of nonfunctional turfgrass areas to a more ecologically diverse landscape as a priority as the need for mowing and other maintenance practices, which results in the production of GHE, will be eliminated. Additionally, conversation of turfgrass to more ecologically diverse landscape offers the opportunity derive floral, fauna, soil and water benefits with less frequent need for human intervention.

Problems to be solved

What the City of Bowie is doing is not unique and mirrors what other municipalities, particularly within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, have been doing to meet total maximum daily load requirements established by the USEPA as part section 303 D of the Clean Water Act. With the broader lens of climate change being the driver for the City of Bowie planned actions the framework supporting the need for actions is broader as well. The city would like a synthesis of ecological and economic benefits that would occur when converting turf to more ecologically diverse landscape. As part of this synthesis the resulting document should provide examples of conversions that have occurred in the region that highlight the best management practices that were implemented as part of, or following, the conversion. Maps have been generated by the city showing potential areas for the conversion of turfgrass to ecological landscaping. Using information from documented conversions that are summarized in the report the city seeks to have a layer added to the maps that will provide suggested courses of action for the identified parcels. Additionally, the city wishes to have an internal policy developed that will guide turf conversions within the city.

Questions to Answer

What are the potential benefits that may be realized when converting turf to ecological landscaping?
When should turfgrass be used or retained as the primary element in the landscape?
What best management practices are typically associated with ecological landscaping?
What other municipalities within the region have implemented turf to ecological landscape conversions? What do these conversions look like and what benefits were realized from the conversions?
What type of information should guide the implementation of ecological landscaping?

Resources from Project Scope:

Scholarly Articles

Aronson, M. F., Lepczyk, C. A., Evans, K. L., Goddard, M. A., Lerman, S. B., MacIvor, J. S., Nilon, C. H., & Vargo, T. (2017). Biodiversity in the city: Key challenges for urban green space management. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 15(4), 189–196. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1480

Gillman, L. N., Bollard, B., & Leuzinger, S. (2023). Calling time on the imperial lawn and the imperative for greenhouse gas mitigation. Global Sustainability, 6, e3. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2023.1

Kiers, A. H., Krimmel, B., Larsen-Bircher, C., Hayes, K., Zemenick, A., & Michaels, J. (2022). Different jargon, same goals: Collaborations between landscape architects and ecologists to maximize biodiversity in urban lawn conversions. Land, 11(10), 1665. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11101665

Link:

City of Bowie Studies and Reports
Links to studies and reports from Bowie, MD on climate action plans, environmental impact, and more.

Search Tips:

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Databases:

Academic Search Ultimate
Multi-disciplinary database providing information for nearly every area of academic study. Includes an enormous collection of the most valuable peer-reviewed full text journals, as well as additional journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Multidisciplinary subjects including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, ethnic studies. 1965- present.
ACSESS Digital Library
The Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies (ACSESS) is composed of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). The ACSESS Digital Library is a complete collection of all content published by these societies. The Digital Library allows users to search and browse all the published literature of these societies simultaneously through a single platform.
Garden, Landscape & Horticulture Index
Access to articles in the subject areas of Horticulture, Botany, Garden and Landscape Design, Ecology, Plant and Garden Conservation, Horticultural Therapy, and Sustainable Horticultural Design Practices.
GreenFile
Collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done at each level to minimize these effects. Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more.
Scopus
Scopus is an abstract and citation database with over 80 million records and 1.8 billion cited references that date back to 1970. Includes over 27 thousand serial titles and 249 thousand monographs in the social, physical, life and health sciences, as well as over 44 million patent records. More information on using Scopus is available at: https://elsevier.libguides.com/Scopus.
Turfgrass Information Center
The Turfgrass Information Center houses the most comprehensive publicly-available collection of turfgrass research and educational materials in the world, and has also continuously produced the Turfgrass Information File (TGIF) database since 1983. The TGIF database contains more than a quarter million records, with over 60% of those records linking the user directly to the full-text of the item. The Turfgrass Information Center and TGIF database are irreplaceable resources for students, researchers, and professionals around the world who are responsible for maintaining golf courses, lawns, athletic fields, and managed landscapes of every kind, helping fulfill MSU’s land-grant ideal.