The Baltimore Ecosystem Study: From Sanitary to Sustainable City

1. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study: From Sanitary to Sustainable City S.T.A. Pickett, K.T. Belt, A.R. Berkowitz, N. Bettez, M.L. Cadenasso, B. Caplan, P.M. Groffman, J.M. Grove, S.S. Kaushal, D. Nowak, M. Romolini, A. Troy • ABSTRACT -- Phase III of BES: • Builds on prior use of the watershed, patch dynamics, and human ecosystem concepts. • Focuses on how evolving policies for sustainability affect social and biophysical adaptive processes. • Uses a resilience framework to examine the feedbacks between biogeophysical and social processes. • Exemplifies urban metacommunity dynamics, the urban stream dis/continuum, and locational choices. • An urban stream dis/continuum explains city & suburban stream processes • Urban watersheds suffer from both hydrological disconnection in some places, and increased hydrological connection in others. This drives unique urban hydrology. • There are increases in organic carbon as water flows from low-density residential areas in headwaters through progressively urbanizing areas with storm drains, sewage leaks, and algal blooms. • Changes in quantity and quality of organic carbon along the urban watershed continuum can increase organic carbon exports downstream and affect ecosystem functions. • See below for citation. • Forest area stable while patch size decreases • Zhou, W., G. Huang, S.T.A. Pickett, & M.L. Cadenasso. 2011. 90 years of forest cover change in the urbanizing Gwynns Falls watershed, Baltimore, Maryland: spatial and temporal dynamics. Landscape Ecology 26:645-659 Sustainability Plans: A New Environment • Urban tree canopy decreasing in US cities • Tree cover in 17 of 20 cities had statistically significant declines in tree cover, while 16 cities had statistically significant increases in impervious cover. • Only Syracuse, NY had a statistically significant increase in tree cover over time. • Nowak, D.J. and E.J. Greenfield. 2012. Tree and impervious cover change in U.S. cities. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening. 11:21-30. • Stream contamination reflects the continuum • Contaminants can be substantially elevated in storm drains compared to forest and suburban streams. • Contamination in dense city storm drains exceeds EPA limits. • Kaushal, S.S. & K.T. Belt. 2012. The urban watershed continuum: evolving spatial and temporal dimensions. Urban Ecosystems 15:409-435 Generates a New Guiding Question: • What are the effects of adaptive processes aimed at sustainability in the Baltimore socio-ecological system? • How do biophysical & social adaptive processes interact in the sanitary city vs. the sustainable city? • How do adaptive processes change to reflect policies aimed at sustainability in Baltimore? • How can information exchange, education, & urban design improve adaptive processes? • Heat island hotspots hit the disadvantaged • Land surface temperature is statistically higher in block groups that are characterized by low income, high poverty, less education, more ethnic minorities, more elderly people and greater risk of crime. • Huang, G., W. Zhou, & M.L. Cadenasso. 2011. Is everyone hot in the city?: Spatial pattern of land surface temperatures, land cover, and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics in Baltimore, City, MD. Jour. Environ. Manage. 92:1753-1759. • Stewardship Networks Share Information & Resources • The 10 largest nodes in the stewardship information network hold 53% of links. • Policy makers can use this knowledge to target messages to these hub organizations. • Individual outreach is required for groups not connected to the hubs. • Michele Romolini, Univ. of Vermont & J.M. Grove, USDA Forest Service • Stormwater detention basins are also adaptive for N mitigation • Although stormwater detention basins are designed for hydrological mitigation, denitrification potential can be higher there than in native riparian zones. • Neil Bettez & Peter Groffman, submitted. • Education Research • What are the pathways of student learning from the primary discourse children learn out of school (force dynamic reasoning), to the scientific discourse they learn in school (model-based reasoning)? • Bess Caplan & Alan Berkowitz • More trees, less crime • Tree canopy cover is inversely related to the incidence of robbery, burglary, shooting and theft. • This result was unaffected by spatial autocorrelation, socio-economic status, housing type and age, amount of protected agricultural land, and urban/rural status. • The few neighborhoods with a positive relationship had an extensive interface zone between residential and industrial uses where unmanaged trees grow. • Troy, A. J.M. Grove & J. O’Neil-Dunne. 2012. The Relationship between Tree Canopy and Crime Rates across an Urban-Rural Gradient in the Greater Baltimore Region, Lands. Urban Plann. 106: 262-270. Denitrification potential in five types of stormwater detention basins: SM = shallow marsh, DP = dry detention ponds, EDSD = extended det. structure , IB = infiltration basin, E = filtration basin) and Two types of natural riparian zones Herb = herbaceous, Fors = forested Summer 2011 Contact: picketts@caryinstitute.org .