Learning from the City: Rethinking Green Infrastructure for Production Agriculture

Session: 28. - Pilot Projects and Future Visions: Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Applied Research

Forbes Lipschitz, The Ohio State University, [email protected]
Halina Steiner, The Ohio State University, [email protected]

Abstract

Every summer, harmful algal blooms threaten the economic and ecological vitality of Lake Erie. The 700 square mile bloom begins as runoff draining through buried six inch plastic pipes or “tile drains” below cropland in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Tile drainage brings subsurface soil moisture levels down for optimal crop growth, while accelerating the flow of nutrients into adjacent waterways. This paper considers how green infrastructure (GI) might be adapted to mitigate runoff in tile-drained fields. Though largely missing from production agriculture, green infrastructure has been proven to be a robust strategy for improving urban water systems. Supported by new water regulations, teams of landscape architects, civil engineers, hydrologists, and urban planners have been on the forefront in designing GI to mitigate stormwater runoff. The US EPA Consent Decree requiring municipalities to eliminate combined-sewer overflow incidences created the political will necessary to rapidly design, test and deploy GI strategies in cities across the country. Through an examination of existing, experimental and spectualtive infrastructures, this presentation asks how interdisciplinary teams might adapt urban infrastructure systems like bioswales and rain gardens to agricultural contexts and examines the legal or regulatory frameworks that could facilitate the development and deployment of such strategies.

1. Keyword
urban watersheds

2. Keyword
environmental contaminants

3. Keyword
nutrients

4. Additional Keyword
Interdisciplinary Collaboration

5. Additional Keyword
Agricultural watersheds

6. Additional Keyword
Green Infrastructure