lehayes01
Rain Garden
As describes the placard: with an annual rainfall of 42 inches, there is a lot of rainfall in Maryland that eventually makes its way into the Anacostia River and Chesapeake Bay. Everything in the state leads to the Chesapeake Bay watershed. On the University of Maryland's campus, a lot of this rainfall hits impervious surfaces like roads and sidewalks and goes into storm drains below instead of slowly being absorbed into the soil and used by plant life. During rainstorms a high volume of water is not being absorbed by the soil, so the area is prone to flooding at times. The flooding can cause erosion and habitat loss in the area, and increases the amount of sediment and turbidity in waterways. A rain garden helps towards Sustainable Development Goal #14, "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development" because excess nutrients from farms nearby can end up in the waterways, and can cause eutrophication events that suffocate aquatic wildlife. Nitrogen and Phosphorus are the two elements that drive eutrophication, which is the phenomenon where an unusually large algal bloom takes up most of the oxygen in the water once it starts decomposing. Rain gardens are a place where water can collect and seep into the ground slowly, thus filtering it before it gets into our waterways. Additionally, the pollution from roads and sidewalks gets filtered out by a rain garden as well. With this rain garden being built in 2013, it has done a lot of good work in keeping our local Paint Branch Creek clean. However, it does need some upkeep to get rid of weeds that were not meant to be there originally.
This image was taken outside of Woods Hall on the campus of University of Maryland, on December 6th 2022.
Links: www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-whats-problem#:~:text....
Rain Garden
As describes the placard: with an annual rainfall of 42 inches, there is a lot of rainfall in Maryland that eventually makes its way into the Anacostia River and Chesapeake Bay. Everything in the state leads to the Chesapeake Bay watershed. On the University of Maryland's campus, a lot of this rainfall hits impervious surfaces like roads and sidewalks and goes into storm drains below instead of slowly being absorbed into the soil and used by plant life. During rainstorms a high volume of water is not being absorbed by the soil, so the area is prone to flooding at times. The flooding can cause erosion and habitat loss in the area, and increases the amount of sediment and turbidity in waterways. A rain garden helps towards Sustainable Development Goal #14, "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development" because excess nutrients from farms nearby can end up in the waterways, and can cause eutrophication events that suffocate aquatic wildlife. Nitrogen and Phosphorus are the two elements that drive eutrophication, which is the phenomenon where an unusually large algal bloom takes up most of the oxygen in the water once it starts decomposing. Rain gardens are a place where water can collect and seep into the ground slowly, thus filtering it before it gets into our waterways. Additionally, the pollution from roads and sidewalks gets filtered out by a rain garden as well. With this rain garden being built in 2013, it has done a lot of good work in keeping our local Paint Branch Creek clean. However, it does need some upkeep to get rid of weeds that were not meant to be there originally.
This image was taken outside of Woods Hall on the campus of University of Maryland, on December 6th 2022.
Links: www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-whats-problem#:~:text....